'I am never "Happy"...'
Sep. 30th, 2008 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
r_scribblesRollercoaster...
ROLLERCOASTER
-x-
There’s No Place Like Home, Part 3
-x-
‘Ishara!’
Tasha ran forward to her sister’s fallen figure. She glanced up at the android, who had calmly moved over to a large computer bank and set to work upon it. ‘What have you done?’
‘Ishara was about to fire at me,’ Data explained, ‘or else allow us all to perish in her destruction of the Alliance’s defence system.’
‘It was a con all along,’ Riker added, softly. ‘She got us to remove her proximity implant and take her right to the heart of Alliance territory, where she could sabotage to her heart’s delight.’
Data ran his fingers over a few more buttons, and the shrieking computer bank fell silent. He nodded down at Ishara. ‘She will not suffer any serious injury,’ he added. ‘My phaser was set to stun.’
Tasha picked up the weapon that her sister had dropped. ‘Hers wasn’t.’ She stared down at the unconscious young woman, bitterly. ‘”Just wanted to ruffle him”, huh? Damn you, Ishara.’
Riker patted Tasha’s shoulder. ‘We’d better get out of here. Commander Yar, once we’re on board you’d better take your prisoner straight down to the Brig.’
Tasha picked her sister up off the ground, and propped her up against her shoulder. ‘Of course.’
‘Four to beam up.’
-x-
Tasha hadn’t asked Data to help escort her sister to the transporter room, in order to deliver her back into Coalition territory, but he walked with them anyway. He had seen Ishara as a friend, Tasha reminded herself. He had been the first to show trust in her. He had been chewed up and spat out by Ishara no less than Tasha had. He probably did deserve to see her off the ship as well – it wasn’t as though Tasha had anything to say to her conniving little sister, anyway. As it turned out, however, it seemed as though Data had nothing to say to her, either. The three of them walked most of the way in silence.
‘You know,’ Ishara announced, suddenly, ‘in the long run, this whole thing really worked out in your favour. You got your men back, and you prevented me from carrying out my little covert mission. You thwarted both the Alliance and the Coalition. If anything, you should be pleased…’
‘Oh yes,’ snorted Tasha. ‘I’m sure that in a few months, you and I will be able to meet over coffee, look back on this and laugh.’
‘Come on, Tasha,’ Ishara replied. ‘You couldn’t really see me in a Starfleet uniform, could you?’
‘I know you probably won’t believe me,’ Tasha replied, ‘but yes. I really could. But that’s beside the point.’
Ishara just pursed her lips, and carried on walking.
‘You used me,’ Tasha told her sister. ‘You forced a reconciliation with me that you didn’t mean, just to suit your own cynical ends.’
‘I did mean it,’ Ishara replied, ‘with both of you.’ She turned to the android. ‘Data, I did feel a genuine friendship with you.’
‘I find that difficult to believe,’ Data replied with an uncommon terseness.
Ishara turned her attention back to Tasha. ‘And you, Tasha…? I honestly did want to make peace with you. I was telling the truth when I said I was proud of your achievements in Starfleet. I really am. You’ve come so far… but at the cost of your homeworld. And that’s the difference between you and me. I’ll never abandon Turkana IV. I’m just trying to straighten out the mess that you left behind.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Tasha warned.
Ishara folded her arms as they approached the door to the transporter room. ‘Guess I probably won’t see either of you ever again.’
Tasha arched an eyebrow. ‘You think…?’
‘It’s kinda sad,’ Ishara added, stepping onto the transporter. ‘I do really like you, Data. And you, Tasha…? You’ll always be my sister.’
‘You’re no sister of mine.’
‘Don’t say that, Tasha.’
‘I had a sister once, but you’re not her. Guess she really did die down there after all.’
If Tasha was hoping to bring Ishara to tears, she was to be sorely disappointed. The younger woman pulled up her shoulders, took a deep breath and calmly replied ‘Goodbye, Tasha’.
‘Energise.’
Tasha didn’t break defiant eye contact with Ishara until she had fully dematerialised. Only when her sister was gone did she sigh deeply and close her eyes, pushing her hands through her short hair. She turned to face where the android had been.
‘Listen, Data…’
But Data had already left.
-x-
She found him in his quarters, where he politely invited her in as though nothing of note had just occurred. She noticed with a frown that he had a paintbrush in his hand as he did so.
‘You’re painting?’
‘Yes.’
She blinked a couple of times as he set back to work on an intricate still life of a pot of geraniums.
‘Now? You’ve decided that right now is a good time to paint?’
‘I am off duty,’ Data reminded her. ‘What I choose to do with my free time is my own business, is it not?’
Tasha took a seat in one of his needlessly uncomfortable chairs. ‘Data, you seemed pretty ticked off back there. You had every right to be. Didn’t you want to talk about it?’
‘I did not believe that you would wish to have such a conversation in a public area. And I was not “ticked off”.’
Tasha indicated to the room about her. ‘Well, we’re not in public now.’ She paused. ‘Data, you’ve barely breathed a word to me since Ishara so much as showed her face.’
‘You lied to me,’ Data replied, not taking a moment away from his painting.
‘So did Ishara, tenfold.’ Tasha gave a sour, mirthless smile. ‘Some family you must take us for.’
‘Ishara misdirected all of us, on Hayne’s orders, for the perceived benefit of her faction.’ Data paused to clean his brush. ‘You, conversely, told an unnecessary lie to me alone, on the day following my daughter’s death, of your own volition, for the benefit of… in fact, I cannot yet fathom how you believed that it would benefit anybody. If I were capable of becoming “ticked off”, as you put it, which I am not, it would most likely be directed at you, rather than your sister.’
Tasha shook her head. ‘How does she do it, Data? She’s sold us all upriver, she’s proved herself to be entirely untrustworthy, and still she’s still getting her way.’ Thoroughly annoyed, she got to her feet. ‘Don’t you see? She poisoned you against me so that she could get to you. She thought you were gullible, that’s why she zoned straight in on you. She knew you had a history with me, she admitted it herself. It was so easy for her to drive a wedge between our friendship and offer a handy shoulder to cry on… if you did any crying, that is.’
‘Do you agree that I am gullible?’ Data asked, continuing to paint. ‘That does appear to be an apt description of my social intelligence, considering the ease and regularity with which I have been deceived recently.’
‘You are angry at her,’ replied Tasha, ‘aren’t you?’
‘I am incapable of anger. I have reminded you of this fact many times.’
Tasha tilted her head a little at him, a horrible thought coming into her mind. ‘Exactly how far did my sister take this act of “closeness” with you?’
There was a shrill clatter as Data dropped his paintbrush into a water cup and turned to her.
‘What is your insinuation?’
‘I wouldn’t put it past her,’ Tasha continued, ‘and it would explain the strength of your reaction now.’
‘I was not aware that I was reacting strongly.’
‘Just tell me what the deal was between you and my sister.’
‘We did not make any “deals”…’
‘Will you stop beating about the bush and just tell me?’
‘I do not know to what you are...’
‘Just tell me,’ Tasha seethed. ‘I have to know whether you let her fuck you too.’
There was an overlong pause as they stared at each other from opposite sides of the room.
‘I was not aware,’ said Data, eventually, ‘that that was your perception of our relationship – that I am an object, which allows you to perform crude, basic sexual acts upon from time to time.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ replied Tasha, softly.
‘But that was the meaning suggested by your comment, was it not?’
‘I didn’t…’
‘What was the intended outcome of your falsehood the day after Lal died? Were you also attempting to manipulate me somehow, as Ishara did?’
‘I was trying to help you, Data! For pity’s sake, it was one little lie. Why is that the end of the world?’
‘Your lie has no apocalyptic implications,’ Data replied. ‘However, I consider it to be very serious – more so than Ishara’s dishonesty, since I only knew Ishara for a matter of days, and it is extremely doubtful that I shall see her again. You, however, I have known, worked with and had a unique, occasionally sexualised friendship with, for over four years. Our positions aboard this vessel require us to work closely together, and to have trust in one another. You have proved yourself to be deceitful to me. How can I now trust anything that you tell me, or have told me in the past?’
‘Such as…?’
Data paused for a moment. ‘When the Captain had been taken, and we were readying the ship to rendezvous at Wolf 359... you claimed that you could fall in love with me. That was also a lie, was it not? It makes no sense otherwise.’
Tasha pushed back her fringe in exasperation. ‘You know what, Data? Sure. Sure, I was lying. My emotions were all over the place, I thought we had hours left to live… so let’s just say that I lied, shall we? You were so desperate to reject it anyway, now you don’t have to worry about having hurt my feelings. Happy now?’
‘I am never “happy”. Besides, I am also aware that you might, in fact, be lying now.’
‘How can somebody who claims to have no ego be capable of such monumental self-absorption?’ Tasha squeezed the bridge of her nose. ‘I lied that Ishara was dead for what I thought were the right reasons at the time. If you disagree with that, then I apologise, OK? I don’t know what else I can do to make you feel better about it, and frankly, Data, I don’t have the energy to pay it the amount of attention that you obviously are. I just gained a sister and lost her again over a couple of days, but not before she used her relationship to me to try and screw us all over. Of all the people on board who I could imagine might know what a kick in the stomach that is, Data, it would be you…’
‘Are you comparing Ishara to Lore, Tasha? I do not believe that that is a fair evaluation.’
‘I wasn’t saying Ishara was as bad as Lore, Data, I just…’ she faltered. ‘I just expected, maybe…’ she sighed. ‘What exactly did I expect? A little sympathy, perhaps? But, of course, you can’t feel sympathy, can you?’
‘That is correct,’ nodded Data, picking up his paintbrush again. ‘Perhaps, if you are seeking sympathy, you should look for it elsewhere.’
‘You know what, Data?’ Tasha asked, as she turned to leave his quarters, ‘that’s just fine by me.’
-x-
‘Penny for them?’
Alone at her table, Tasha looked up suddenly from her coffee cup, apparently startled by Picard’s voice drawing her out of her thoughts. He gave her a sympathetic smile.
‘I’m sorry,’ he added, ‘did you want to be alone?’
‘I hardly ever do,’ Tasha replied. ‘I just keep finding myself that way.’
‘Then may I keep you company?’
‘Please.’
He sat down at her table. There was a long silence as Tasha gazed down at her cup.
‘I feel like everybody’s looking at me differently,’ Tasha mumbled, eventually. ‘As if Ishara’s deception means that I’m not to be trusted either, by proxy.’
‘I assure you, that isn’t the case.’
Tasha ran a fingernail through a spilled droplet of coffee, her expression darkening. ‘It is as far as he’s concerned.’
Picard took a sip of his tea. He could hazard a pretty good guess as to which “he” she was referring.
‘I imagine he’s just very been left very confused by Ishara’s duplicity. He doesn’t know how to react.’
‘You’d think he’d understand a thing or two about familial betrayal by now,’ added Tasha.
‘Actually,’ Picard replied, ‘in a way, I’m rather grateful that deceit still takes him unawares, if it means that Lore, for all the damage he’s done, hasn’t been able to make a cynic of him… hasn’t been able to make him any less…’ Picard trailed off.
‘…any less Data,’ completed Tasha. ‘I suppose so. Doesn’t make things any easier for me, though.’ She paused. ‘I thought perhaps going back down to Turkana IV would help me face down my past, lay some of my demons to rest. Boy, was I ever wrong about that. All this mission did was raise more spectres.’
‘You did overcome your past,’ Picard argued gently. ‘You mustn’t let Ishara’s manipulation of us all lessen the personal achievements you made, just by beaming down there…’ he trailed off again, noticing that the Blonde’s eyes were shining with pent-up tears.
She continued to look down at her cup, a tightly bunched fist pressed hard against her lips as she struggled to keep herself from crying.
‘Why is it,’ she whispered through the strain of control, ‘that every time I tell somebody that I love them, that I so much as suggest it, they turn me away? Am I really so poisonous?’
‘Of course you aren’t.’ Picard sighed. ‘Perhaps this is something you’d be wiser to speak with Counsellor Troi about.’
‘You’re right.’ Tasha cleared her throat, blinking hard to rid herself of the tears. ‘I’m sorry, Sir. This isn’t your problem to worry about.’
‘On the contrary,’ the Captain replied, ‘I’m glad that you feel able to be so candid with me. I just wish that there was some practical help that I could give you…’ He blinked. ‘Actually… perhaps there is. Some time ago now, I suggested that you should join me for an adventure on the Holodeck - an agreement that, so far, I’ve neglected to realise. You must think me terribly rude.’
‘I know you’re busy.’
‘Actually,’ replied Picard, ‘I was considering making use of the Holodeck tomorrow evening. Nothing quite like stepping out of oneself to clear the head, I always find. Besides which, I’m getting tantalisingly close to the finale of my current mystery, and an extra brain would certainly come in handy for helping me to wrap it up.’
Tasha managed a small, grateful smile. ‘Really?’
‘It would be my pleasure.’ He finished off his tea and stood up to leave. ‘Holodeck Four, tomorrow, nineteen hundred hours prompt.’
Tasha laughed a little. ‘Aye, Sir.’
‘Oh, and Commander…?’
‘Sir?’
‘Wear a skirt.’
(A/N - you have no idea how tempting it was to keep Tasha and Data in the transporter room for that argument. When it got to the sensitive part, O'Brien was going to pipe up with 'Um... I'm still here...' But alas, it was too 'Friends' and way out of character for them both. But the mental image of it made me happy.)
ROLLERCOASTER
-x-
There’s No Place Like Home, Part 3
-x-
‘Ishara!’
Tasha ran forward to her sister’s fallen figure. She glanced up at the android, who had calmly moved over to a large computer bank and set to work upon it. ‘What have you done?’
‘Ishara was about to fire at me,’ Data explained, ‘or else allow us all to perish in her destruction of the Alliance’s defence system.’
‘It was a con all along,’ Riker added, softly. ‘She got us to remove her proximity implant and take her right to the heart of Alliance territory, where she could sabotage to her heart’s delight.’
Data ran his fingers over a few more buttons, and the shrieking computer bank fell silent. He nodded down at Ishara. ‘She will not suffer any serious injury,’ he added. ‘My phaser was set to stun.’
Tasha picked up the weapon that her sister had dropped. ‘Hers wasn’t.’ She stared down at the unconscious young woman, bitterly. ‘”Just wanted to ruffle him”, huh? Damn you, Ishara.’
Riker patted Tasha’s shoulder. ‘We’d better get out of here. Commander Yar, once we’re on board you’d better take your prisoner straight down to the Brig.’
Tasha picked her sister up off the ground, and propped her up against her shoulder. ‘Of course.’
‘Four to beam up.’
-x-
Tasha hadn’t asked Data to help escort her sister to the transporter room, in order to deliver her back into Coalition territory, but he walked with them anyway. He had seen Ishara as a friend, Tasha reminded herself. He had been the first to show trust in her. He had been chewed up and spat out by Ishara no less than Tasha had. He probably did deserve to see her off the ship as well – it wasn’t as though Tasha had anything to say to her conniving little sister, anyway. As it turned out, however, it seemed as though Data had nothing to say to her, either. The three of them walked most of the way in silence.
‘You know,’ Ishara announced, suddenly, ‘in the long run, this whole thing really worked out in your favour. You got your men back, and you prevented me from carrying out my little covert mission. You thwarted both the Alliance and the Coalition. If anything, you should be pleased…’
‘Oh yes,’ snorted Tasha. ‘I’m sure that in a few months, you and I will be able to meet over coffee, look back on this and laugh.’
‘Come on, Tasha,’ Ishara replied. ‘You couldn’t really see me in a Starfleet uniform, could you?’
‘I know you probably won’t believe me,’ Tasha replied, ‘but yes. I really could. But that’s beside the point.’
Ishara just pursed her lips, and carried on walking.
‘You used me,’ Tasha told her sister. ‘You forced a reconciliation with me that you didn’t mean, just to suit your own cynical ends.’
‘I did mean it,’ Ishara replied, ‘with both of you.’ She turned to the android. ‘Data, I did feel a genuine friendship with you.’
‘I find that difficult to believe,’ Data replied with an uncommon terseness.
Ishara turned her attention back to Tasha. ‘And you, Tasha…? I honestly did want to make peace with you. I was telling the truth when I said I was proud of your achievements in Starfleet. I really am. You’ve come so far… but at the cost of your homeworld. And that’s the difference between you and me. I’ll never abandon Turkana IV. I’m just trying to straighten out the mess that you left behind.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Tasha warned.
Ishara folded her arms as they approached the door to the transporter room. ‘Guess I probably won’t see either of you ever again.’
Tasha arched an eyebrow. ‘You think…?’
‘It’s kinda sad,’ Ishara added, stepping onto the transporter. ‘I do really like you, Data. And you, Tasha…? You’ll always be my sister.’
‘You’re no sister of mine.’
‘Don’t say that, Tasha.’
‘I had a sister once, but you’re not her. Guess she really did die down there after all.’
If Tasha was hoping to bring Ishara to tears, she was to be sorely disappointed. The younger woman pulled up her shoulders, took a deep breath and calmly replied ‘Goodbye, Tasha’.
‘Energise.’
Tasha didn’t break defiant eye contact with Ishara until she had fully dematerialised. Only when her sister was gone did she sigh deeply and close her eyes, pushing her hands through her short hair. She turned to face where the android had been.
‘Listen, Data…’
But Data had already left.
-x-
She found him in his quarters, where he politely invited her in as though nothing of note had just occurred. She noticed with a frown that he had a paintbrush in his hand as he did so.
‘You’re painting?’
‘Yes.’
She blinked a couple of times as he set back to work on an intricate still life of a pot of geraniums.
‘Now? You’ve decided that right now is a good time to paint?’
‘I am off duty,’ Data reminded her. ‘What I choose to do with my free time is my own business, is it not?’
Tasha took a seat in one of his needlessly uncomfortable chairs. ‘Data, you seemed pretty ticked off back there. You had every right to be. Didn’t you want to talk about it?’
‘I did not believe that you would wish to have such a conversation in a public area. And I was not “ticked off”.’
Tasha indicated to the room about her. ‘Well, we’re not in public now.’ She paused. ‘Data, you’ve barely breathed a word to me since Ishara so much as showed her face.’
‘You lied to me,’ Data replied, not taking a moment away from his painting.
‘So did Ishara, tenfold.’ Tasha gave a sour, mirthless smile. ‘Some family you must take us for.’
‘Ishara misdirected all of us, on Hayne’s orders, for the perceived benefit of her faction.’ Data paused to clean his brush. ‘You, conversely, told an unnecessary lie to me alone, on the day following my daughter’s death, of your own volition, for the benefit of… in fact, I cannot yet fathom how you believed that it would benefit anybody. If I were capable of becoming “ticked off”, as you put it, which I am not, it would most likely be directed at you, rather than your sister.’
Tasha shook her head. ‘How does she do it, Data? She’s sold us all upriver, she’s proved herself to be entirely untrustworthy, and still she’s still getting her way.’ Thoroughly annoyed, she got to her feet. ‘Don’t you see? She poisoned you against me so that she could get to you. She thought you were gullible, that’s why she zoned straight in on you. She knew you had a history with me, she admitted it herself. It was so easy for her to drive a wedge between our friendship and offer a handy shoulder to cry on… if you did any crying, that is.’
‘Do you agree that I am gullible?’ Data asked, continuing to paint. ‘That does appear to be an apt description of my social intelligence, considering the ease and regularity with which I have been deceived recently.’
‘You are angry at her,’ replied Tasha, ‘aren’t you?’
‘I am incapable of anger. I have reminded you of this fact many times.’
Tasha tilted her head a little at him, a horrible thought coming into her mind. ‘Exactly how far did my sister take this act of “closeness” with you?’
There was a shrill clatter as Data dropped his paintbrush into a water cup and turned to her.
‘What is your insinuation?’
‘I wouldn’t put it past her,’ Tasha continued, ‘and it would explain the strength of your reaction now.’
‘I was not aware that I was reacting strongly.’
‘Just tell me what the deal was between you and my sister.’
‘We did not make any “deals”…’
‘Will you stop beating about the bush and just tell me?’
‘I do not know to what you are...’
‘Just tell me,’ Tasha seethed. ‘I have to know whether you let her fuck you too.’
There was an overlong pause as they stared at each other from opposite sides of the room.
‘I was not aware,’ said Data, eventually, ‘that that was your perception of our relationship – that I am an object, which allows you to perform crude, basic sexual acts upon from time to time.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ replied Tasha, softly.
‘But that was the meaning suggested by your comment, was it not?’
‘I didn’t…’
‘What was the intended outcome of your falsehood the day after Lal died? Were you also attempting to manipulate me somehow, as Ishara did?’
‘I was trying to help you, Data! For pity’s sake, it was one little lie. Why is that the end of the world?’
‘Your lie has no apocalyptic implications,’ Data replied. ‘However, I consider it to be very serious – more so than Ishara’s dishonesty, since I only knew Ishara for a matter of days, and it is extremely doubtful that I shall see her again. You, however, I have known, worked with and had a unique, occasionally sexualised friendship with, for over four years. Our positions aboard this vessel require us to work closely together, and to have trust in one another. You have proved yourself to be deceitful to me. How can I now trust anything that you tell me, or have told me in the past?’
‘Such as…?’
Data paused for a moment. ‘When the Captain had been taken, and we were readying the ship to rendezvous at Wolf 359... you claimed that you could fall in love with me. That was also a lie, was it not? It makes no sense otherwise.’
Tasha pushed back her fringe in exasperation. ‘You know what, Data? Sure. Sure, I was lying. My emotions were all over the place, I thought we had hours left to live… so let’s just say that I lied, shall we? You were so desperate to reject it anyway, now you don’t have to worry about having hurt my feelings. Happy now?’
‘I am never “happy”. Besides, I am also aware that you might, in fact, be lying now.’
‘How can somebody who claims to have no ego be capable of such monumental self-absorption?’ Tasha squeezed the bridge of her nose. ‘I lied that Ishara was dead for what I thought were the right reasons at the time. If you disagree with that, then I apologise, OK? I don’t know what else I can do to make you feel better about it, and frankly, Data, I don’t have the energy to pay it the amount of attention that you obviously are. I just gained a sister and lost her again over a couple of days, but not before she used her relationship to me to try and screw us all over. Of all the people on board who I could imagine might know what a kick in the stomach that is, Data, it would be you…’
‘Are you comparing Ishara to Lore, Tasha? I do not believe that that is a fair evaluation.’
‘I wasn’t saying Ishara was as bad as Lore, Data, I just…’ she faltered. ‘I just expected, maybe…’ she sighed. ‘What exactly did I expect? A little sympathy, perhaps? But, of course, you can’t feel sympathy, can you?’
‘That is correct,’ nodded Data, picking up his paintbrush again. ‘Perhaps, if you are seeking sympathy, you should look for it elsewhere.’
‘You know what, Data?’ Tasha asked, as she turned to leave his quarters, ‘that’s just fine by me.’
-x-
‘Penny for them?’
Alone at her table, Tasha looked up suddenly from her coffee cup, apparently startled by Picard’s voice drawing her out of her thoughts. He gave her a sympathetic smile.
‘I’m sorry,’ he added, ‘did you want to be alone?’
‘I hardly ever do,’ Tasha replied. ‘I just keep finding myself that way.’
‘Then may I keep you company?’
‘Please.’
He sat down at her table. There was a long silence as Tasha gazed down at her cup.
‘I feel like everybody’s looking at me differently,’ Tasha mumbled, eventually. ‘As if Ishara’s deception means that I’m not to be trusted either, by proxy.’
‘I assure you, that isn’t the case.’
Tasha ran a fingernail through a spilled droplet of coffee, her expression darkening. ‘It is as far as he’s concerned.’
Picard took a sip of his tea. He could hazard a pretty good guess as to which “he” she was referring.
‘I imagine he’s just very been left very confused by Ishara’s duplicity. He doesn’t know how to react.’
‘You’d think he’d understand a thing or two about familial betrayal by now,’ added Tasha.
‘Actually,’ Picard replied, ‘in a way, I’m rather grateful that deceit still takes him unawares, if it means that Lore, for all the damage he’s done, hasn’t been able to make a cynic of him… hasn’t been able to make him any less…’ Picard trailed off.
‘…any less Data,’ completed Tasha. ‘I suppose so. Doesn’t make things any easier for me, though.’ She paused. ‘I thought perhaps going back down to Turkana IV would help me face down my past, lay some of my demons to rest. Boy, was I ever wrong about that. All this mission did was raise more spectres.’
‘You did overcome your past,’ Picard argued gently. ‘You mustn’t let Ishara’s manipulation of us all lessen the personal achievements you made, just by beaming down there…’ he trailed off again, noticing that the Blonde’s eyes were shining with pent-up tears.
She continued to look down at her cup, a tightly bunched fist pressed hard against her lips as she struggled to keep herself from crying.
‘Why is it,’ she whispered through the strain of control, ‘that every time I tell somebody that I love them, that I so much as suggest it, they turn me away? Am I really so poisonous?’
‘Of course you aren’t.’ Picard sighed. ‘Perhaps this is something you’d be wiser to speak with Counsellor Troi about.’
‘You’re right.’ Tasha cleared her throat, blinking hard to rid herself of the tears. ‘I’m sorry, Sir. This isn’t your problem to worry about.’
‘On the contrary,’ the Captain replied, ‘I’m glad that you feel able to be so candid with me. I just wish that there was some practical help that I could give you…’ He blinked. ‘Actually… perhaps there is. Some time ago now, I suggested that you should join me for an adventure on the Holodeck - an agreement that, so far, I’ve neglected to realise. You must think me terribly rude.’
‘I know you’re busy.’
‘Actually,’ replied Picard, ‘I was considering making use of the Holodeck tomorrow evening. Nothing quite like stepping out of oneself to clear the head, I always find. Besides which, I’m getting tantalisingly close to the finale of my current mystery, and an extra brain would certainly come in handy for helping me to wrap it up.’
Tasha managed a small, grateful smile. ‘Really?’
‘It would be my pleasure.’ He finished off his tea and stood up to leave. ‘Holodeck Four, tomorrow, nineteen hundred hours prompt.’
Tasha laughed a little. ‘Aye, Sir.’
‘Oh, and Commander…?’
‘Sir?’
‘Wear a skirt.’
(A/N - you have no idea how tempting it was to keep Tasha and Data in the transporter room for that argument. When it got to the sensitive part, O'Brien was going to pipe up with 'Um... I'm still here...' But alas, it was too 'Friends' and way out of character for them both. But the mental image of it made me happy.)
