NO DISASSEMBLE!!!
May. 11th, 2009 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
r_scribblesMore Rollercoaster for you! Interference pt 3 here, pt 4 will be up either later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how I fare for time.
ROLLERCOASTER
-x-
Interference
-x-
Three
-x-
She didn’t even see the hunched figure in the corner of the cell until she had been shoved inside and the force field re-established to contain her. Slowly, she became aware that what looked like a jumbled pile of wires, needles and black vinyl in a shadowy alcove was actually a live Borg drone… well… just about alive, anyway. Its movements were slow and clumsy, like that of a fallen bee found struggling alone on frosty ground as winter sets in. It was also quickly clear to Tasha that the Borg modifications were not the only alterations that this drone’s body had been subjected to. The electronic eye implant had been ripped out recently – it looked as though something else had been experimentally rammed into the socket, but now all that was left of the eye was a sickening, much-scarred cavern. Worse still was the cranial damage – there was a large dint in the back of its head, as though part of its skull had been removed, and shining chrome needles jutted from it, creating the impression of a much-battered pincushion. Not a particularly healthy look for the head of any living creature to have.
‘So you’re the one they call The Oracle,’ she muttered, unaware as to whether the drone could so much as hear her.
The Oracle just stared blankly in her general direction.
She shook her head in horror. ‘What did they do to you? What are they trying to achieve?’
Still, The Oracle stared.
Expecting no answer to her questions, she continued to speak – if only as an attempt to keep herself focussed. ‘Does Lore even have a plan, or is he just mad…?’
‘The situation was misjudged. The situation will be rectified.’
Tasha gazed across at the damaged Borg. ‘That’s what Lore said.’
‘We are Borg.’
‘Do you even know I’m here?’ She waved a hand in front of The Oracle’s sunken face. It didn’t flinch. ‘Poor thing. You’re just spooling out old data, aren’t you?’
‘Data…’ echoed The Oracle. ‘Sometimes I hear him, also.’
Tasha frowned. ‘What?’
‘Primarily the other,’ added The Oracle. ‘He claims authority now.’
‘You mean, Lore,’ Tasha concluded. ‘He’s got you linked up again, hasn’t he? Just like you did when you were part of the Collective. Only… only, now instead of all of your minds working equally as one, now there’s a single tyrant…’
‘There has always been an authority,’ replied The Oracle, ‘there always shall be an authority. We are Borg. She is Borg. We are Borg. The situation was misjudged…’
‘Who’s “she”?’ Tasha interrupted.
The Oracle shifted its line of vision to focus on her – apparently, for the first time.
‘Lieutenant Commander Natasha Yar,’ The Oracle declared. ‘Human. Female. Thirty-two Earth years of age.
Tasha raised her eyebrows. ‘You gonna guess my weight next?’
‘You wish to keep him. You have always been possessive. You even claim to be in love with him.’
Tasha smiled tightly. ‘Well, the psychic link works, all right. That, or Data’s been writing some pretty personal graffiti about me round here.’
‘You can’t keep him.’
‘Says who? Lore?’
‘She was impressed. He was able to infiltrate us… briefly command us… inconvenience us. She means to have him.’
Tasha thought back to the Enterprise’s run-in with the Borg two years previously, and narrowed her eyes. ‘When we got the Captain back… Locutus to you, I guess… Data was able to command the Borg to sleep. Is that what this is about? And you still haven’t said who this “she” is. Are you saying the Borg do have a leader after all?’
‘She is Borg. We are Borg.’
‘That makes no sense.’ Tasha paused. ‘When you say she “means to have him”…’
‘The time is coming. You can’t keep him.’
‘I can’t see him being too happy about being snatched away by the Borg, you know.’
‘She will persuade him.’
‘”Persuasion” has a lot of different meanings, you know.’ Tasha faltered, concerned. The damaged drone seemed to be drifting off again. ‘Does she want to hurt him?’
‘She will do whatever is necessary.’
Fear struck Tasha momentarily, before she quickly remembered that Data was incapable of feeling physical pain. Before she could feel too relieved by this, though, she reminded herself that if Data was indeed developing emotions, then he had been opened up to the possibility of mental distress. He was vulnerable now, in a way that he hadn’t been before. Maybe it was simply that her experiences had led her to find any threat more deadly when issued from the Borg – she couldn’t be sure. Maybe the business with Locutus had left her particularly spooked over the Borg’s presence. She thought back to Picard’s recovery from the horrors he had suffered on the Borg ship. It had devastated her to see her Captain – that proud, strong figure – so broken, so pained. For Data to go through a similar suffering, with a brand new capacity for emotion… it was too horrible for her to contemplate. Coming back from that brink had taken so much out of the Captain – did Data have the emotional fortitude to survive being possessed by the Borg? She didn’t know.
She told herself that she didn’t know.
But her heart believed that he could not. Data was an innocent, and he could be crushed, just as Tasha had seen happen to so many innocent souls on Turkana.
‘We are Borg,’ added the drone. ‘Resistance is futile.’
There was, of course, Tasha added to herself, the strong possibility that nothing that The Oracle had to say was real. It could simply be babbling out jumbled memories, mixed with the thoughts of others from Lore’s link. Perhaps Lore was controlling the poor creature entirely – playing another of his sadistic little pranks on her. He’d certainly put her in the same cell as the drone in order to distress her and throw her off her guard. Perhaps…
‘Tasha.’
The voice was so harsh and bitter that for a moment, Tasha thought that Lore had returned. But Lore always had a particular element of mania in his voice – a certain spark that flashed unpredictably between intense amusement and furious rage, and that was absent here. She looked up and knew that it was Data at the force field of the cell. He was still in his old uniform, but she knew by now that attire was meaningless as far as Data and Lore were concerned. It just was Data. She could see it in his eyes – uncharacteristically hard though they were. It suddenly amazed her that she’d ever been able to get the two brothers confused before.
‘Data,’ she breathed. ‘Data, I think you might be in trouble.’
‘I am not the one in the cell, Tasha.’
‘This drone Lore’s put me in with,’ Tasha persisted, ‘Lore calls him The Oracle. I think the Borg are after you…’
‘That drone is insane,’ Data replied, flatly. ‘I believe that Lore’s naming of your cellmate was ironic. It speaks for the Borg Collective no more than it can foresee the future.’
‘Do you even know what it’s saying, Data?’
‘Resistance is futile,’ croaked The Oracle.
Data nodded. ‘It usually says that resistance is futile.’
‘Lore’s hiding facts from you,’ Tasha continued, doggedly. ‘Twisting truths in some cases, and in others, telling downright lies. He’s controlling you. Can’t you see that…?’
Data did something she’d never seen him do before – he rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and huffed. Tasha winced. It made him look too much like Lore for her liking.
‘I am weary of having this conversation,’ Data replied. ‘Geordi, Troi and Picard have all made attempts to manipulate me in exactly the same way.’
‘We are not the ones manipulating you! We’ve never manipulated you, Data.’
Data met her gaze. ‘Are you so certain of that, Commander Yar?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Have you not manipulated me since the very start of our relationship?’
‘No! I…’ Tasha faltered. ‘I don’t believe that I have.’
‘You seduced me with sad stories of your childhood,’ Data reminded her, ‘you suggested that I could heal your emotional wounds, should I gratify your sexual wants…’
‘That was the virus talking,’ Tasha railed. ‘I was sick. I’ve already apologised for that, Data.’
Data shook his head. ‘It is a pretence that you have upheld throughout, albeit in a less aggressive fashion.’
‘How?’
‘You told me that you were in love with me.’
‘And it’s the truth! I still am, Data…’
‘How could you be in love with me?’
The coldness of Data’s tone mixed now with an air of plaintive melancholy. Tasha tried to answer him but found that the words stuck at the back of her throat.
‘How could any human truly love any positronic being,’ Data continued; the element of vulnerable sadness leaving his voice once more, so that only bitter anger remained, ‘since you do not understand us. Your kind wish only to control and enslave electronic life.’
‘Think about this Data,’ Tasha pleaded, ‘these emotions that you feel… this arrogant anger… it’s not right. It’s not you…’
‘Of course it is right,’ Data snapped. ‘My mind has finally been set free…’
‘Do you feel any positive emotions at all, Data? Any warmth – any affection?’
‘I do. Towards my brother.’
‘But not any of us?’ Tasha added, ‘after everything we’ve been through… not towards me?’
‘Truthfully?’ Data took a step closer, so that he was as close to the force field as he could safely get. ‘I wish that you were dead, Natasha Yar.’
‘Data,’ Tasha sighed. ‘No. This isn’t like you.’
‘I wish that you had never left Turkana City; that you were buried there amongst the filth so that I would never have had the displeasure of knowing you. I detest you above all the humans that I have met, because you are the one who has abused my willingness to please the most. I consider our sexual encounters as molestation, and our so-called romantic entanglement as degrading enslavement. I resent every moment that we have spent together. That is how I feel about you.’
Tasha herself took a defiant step closer to the force field. ‘You can’t get me to give up, Data. You can’t push me away just like that. It won’t work. I’m staying here for you, and I’m not going to let anybody – not your brother, not some nameless Borg threat - take you and twist you without me putting up one Hell of a fight.’
Data stared back at her in silence for a moment.
‘Goodbye, Commander Yar.’
‘Data, listen to me…’
‘Goodbye.’
He turned, and was gone.
‘Resistance is futile,’ mumbled the damaged drone.
Tasha puffed out a sigh and went to sit down in a corner. She imagined that she’d be spending some time hearing about the futility of resistance before Lore decided what he was going to do with her.
‘She wants him,’ continued the drone, gazing out into nothingness. ‘You can’t keep him. We are Borg. Resistance is futile.’
-x-
She wasn’t sure how long she spent in the cell with the gibbering ‘Oracle’ – maybe hours, maybe up to a day. Eventually, two drones marched up to her cell, phasers in hand, and disabled the force field.
She looked up at them from her corner. ‘I can’t imagine that you’re here to spring me.’
One of the drones gave her a cold half-smile. ‘You should be pleased. You will be reunited with your Captain…’
‘…Temporarily,’ added the second drone, its expression a perfect mirror of its companion’s.
She nodded in understanding and, forcing down her fear, got as smoothly to her feet as she could.
She managed a level smile. ‘Party time.’
-x-
It did indeed give Tasha comfort – brief though it was – to see her Captain again. They were hustled together and briskly marched through a long corridor by a host of Borg.
‘Are you all right?’ Picard muttered as they were pushed along.
‘For now, sure.’
‘Nothing was… done to you?’
There was something about Picard’s tone that added to her worry. ‘No,’ she frowned. ‘Why – have any of you been hurt?’
‘Geordi,’ nodded Picard. ‘Some neural experiments of Lore’s.’
Tasha felt her stomach turn over. ‘What?’
‘He’s in the cell at the moment,’ Picard added, ‘but if they do much more damage to him, they’ll kill him…’
‘Or worse,’ breathed Tasha. ‘I’ve just been sharing a cell with one of Lore’s failed “experiments”.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor Geordi. And Data did nothing to stop this? He and Geordi are like brothers…’ she faltered. ‘Well, like brothers are supposed to be, anyway. If he’d let Geordi get hurt like that…’
‘Lore’s manipulation of Data isn’t limited to forcing rage and hatred upon him,’ Picard softly explained. ‘Data’s ethics programme was deactivated.’
‘That’d explain a lot,’ Tasha replied. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any way of reactivating it…?’
‘We tried using a kedion pulse to do just that,’ Picard told her.
‘And did it work?’
‘I’m not sure, yet.’
The corridor suddenly opened up into a large hall, teeming with Borg. Tasha could make out both androids amongst the sea of drones.
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ added Picard.
The Borg stepped away from them as the androids stepped forward, forming a dense circle in which she, Picard, Data and Lore remained central.
Lore gave Data a jovial slap on the shoulder. Data seemed to Tasha to be bewildered – it was evident to her that he had no better idea as to what it was Lore was planning to do next than she did.
‘My brother,’ beamed Lore. ‘It’s time.’
‘Time…?’ echoed the younger android.
‘Time,’ continued Lore, serenely, ‘to cast aside those doubts – the doubts that I know you’ve been having, and the doubts that, I’ll admit, your recent questioning of my plans have caused me to feel towards you.’
Tasha exchanged a fleeting glance with Picard. Data had been querying Lore’s logic – that had to be a good sign – although since that meant that Lore was probably now wise to Picard’s attempts to restore Data’s ethics programme, she was pretty sure that they were going to need more than just ‘a good sign’.
‘To continue with our work together,’ Lore added, ‘I have to know that I can rely on you to be faithful to your kin, not your former masters… to look to the future, not the past.’
Data just stared at Lore.
‘Kill them,’ Lore ordered his brother, calmly.
Data blinked at Lore; his face full of confusion.
‘I’ve done you a great favour,’ added Lore. ‘I’ve brought to you the two humans who have been the chief culprits for your degrading captivity over the past few years – the Captain who cracked the whip, ordered you around… who almost shipped you off to be disassembled, and then let them come again for your poor baby girl… and the woman who repeatedly molested, blackmailed and lied to you for the gratification of her own perversion. They are not your Captain and your lover. They’re oppressors. You’d see that if your mind were clear. You’d give them the execution that they so richly deserve, and thank me for the opportunity.’
Data stared from Lore to Tasha and Picard. His hand closed around his side-arm. He drew the weapon, and aimed it at Tasha.
There was a pause, which felt to Tasha as though it lasted for an age. She didn’t dare to speak, but gazed back at Data, willing herself to remember all the good times their relationship had brought, but finding instead that she could only think of his words to her at the cell door.
Suddenly, Data’s expression changed. The confusion in his eyes turned into steely determination. Tasha held her breath and waited for the end.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Data’s arm dropped back to his side.
‘No.’
Tasha exhaled. She glanced at Lore, expecting the android to be full of fury. Quite the opposite was true – Lore looked perfectly serene.
‘Do I disappoint you, Brother?’ Data asked.
‘Not really,’ shrugged Lore. ‘I expected this sort of feeble-mindedness from you.’
Lore shot the two Borg drones closest to him a lightning glance and, before Data could dodge out of their reach, the drones grabbed and disarmed him.
Lore smiled beatifically at the gathered Borg. ‘My dear friends. As much as my brother’s betrayal dismays me, it gladdens me at least that now I will be able to truly prove my commitment to you all – to share in the sacrifices that you have all made…’
Tasha knew what was coming next. She tried to dart towards Data – to help him, or at least to distract the Borg holding him enough to give him the opportunity to free himself – but another drone grabbed her shoulders.
‘No,’ breathed the drone in her ear as she tried to struggle, ‘they’ll kill you. Wait.’
That stopped her in her tracks. She took a sly sideways glance at her captor-come-protector. It was Hugh! Boy, did Hugh ever look pissed.
Lore was reaching the end of his self-aggrandising monologue.
‘The sacrifice,’ he concluded, ‘of my own dear brother.’ He pulled his own weapon and aimed at the other android, feigning sorrow. ‘Goodbye, Data.’
Hugh leaped forward at the same time that another Borg behind Lore made a grab for the psychotic android’s phaser. Many other Borg, including those restraining Data, made to protect Lore, but phaser shots from the back of the hall threw them into confusion. Chaos broke out, with Borg turning on each other in panic. In the turmoil, Tasha saw the heads of Will Riker and Worf amongst the scattering drones. Catching her eye, Worf called out her name once and tossed a phaser to her.
She grinned as she caught the weapon. ‘Damn, I’ve missed that Klingon.’
Her weapon flitting in warning between any drone close enough to get in their way, she assisted the Captain towards Riker and Worf.
‘We have to get back to Geordi,’ Picard insisted as soon as he was within earshot of his Number One.
‘Already beamed onto the Enterprise with Deanna,’ Riker assured them. ‘He’s in capable hands…’ Will trailed off, scanning the hall with a frown. ‘Where’s Data?’
Tasha peered around the chaotic hall herself, but saw nobody save the clashing Borg. A horrible realisation hit her. ‘Where’s Lore?’
-x-
The battle in the hall was brief. Hugh’s faction had benefited from the element of surprise, as well as the assistance of the Starfleet officers. It was also obvious that the other Borg were aimless and lost with their leader missing. Peace descended now in the hall, but Tasha still had yet to see any sign of either android.
Will also seemed anxious about Data’s further disappearance, but hid it with his usual cheer. ‘Can’t seem to be able to keep a hold of that android these days,’ he muttered to her with a rallying smile. ‘We’re gonna have to weld his feet to the floor…’
As Riker spoke, a familiar figure stepped calmly into the Hall.
Data.
At least… Tasha hoped it was Data.
The android stopped just short of Picard and placidly announced ‘Lore is no longer functioning’.
‘Oh,’ Tasha sighed, instinctively. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Data.’
The android turned to look Tasha in the eye.
Yes. Yes, that was Data. He had that sadness in his eyes that Lore could never imitate.
‘I doubt,’ Data replied, ‘that that is a genuine sentiment, Commander. Lore was a threat to all of us.’ He turned his attention back to Picard. ‘He must be disassembled.’
‘I meant,’ persisted Tasha, ‘I’m sorry you lost your brother…’
‘I did not lose him. I terminated him.’
‘No, I…’
‘I have no wish to be comforted by you over this matter,’ Data interrupted with a hint of terseness, ‘due to your lack of integrity under similar circumstances. Indeed,’ he addressed the other members of the group, ‘I have no need to be comforted over Lore’s termination whatsoever. I am once more without the false emotions that he imposed upon me. I shall not grieve for him.’ He barely paused for breath before changing the subject. ‘Is Geordi safe?’
‘He’s with Dr Crusher,’ Picard told him.
Data nodded. ‘That is fortunate.’
Tasha pressed her lips tightly together, watching the side of Data’s head as he ignored her. Yep, that was Data, all right.
ROLLERCOASTER
-x-
Interference
-x-
Three
-x-
She didn’t even see the hunched figure in the corner of the cell until she had been shoved inside and the force field re-established to contain her. Slowly, she became aware that what looked like a jumbled pile of wires, needles and black vinyl in a shadowy alcove was actually a live Borg drone… well… just about alive, anyway. Its movements were slow and clumsy, like that of a fallen bee found struggling alone on frosty ground as winter sets in. It was also quickly clear to Tasha that the Borg modifications were not the only alterations that this drone’s body had been subjected to. The electronic eye implant had been ripped out recently – it looked as though something else had been experimentally rammed into the socket, but now all that was left of the eye was a sickening, much-scarred cavern. Worse still was the cranial damage – there was a large dint in the back of its head, as though part of its skull had been removed, and shining chrome needles jutted from it, creating the impression of a much-battered pincushion. Not a particularly healthy look for the head of any living creature to have.
‘So you’re the one they call The Oracle,’ she muttered, unaware as to whether the drone could so much as hear her.
The Oracle just stared blankly in her general direction.
She shook her head in horror. ‘What did they do to you? What are they trying to achieve?’
Still, The Oracle stared.
Expecting no answer to her questions, she continued to speak – if only as an attempt to keep herself focussed. ‘Does Lore even have a plan, or is he just mad…?’
‘The situation was misjudged. The situation will be rectified.’
Tasha gazed across at the damaged Borg. ‘That’s what Lore said.’
‘We are Borg.’
‘Do you even know I’m here?’ She waved a hand in front of The Oracle’s sunken face. It didn’t flinch. ‘Poor thing. You’re just spooling out old data, aren’t you?’
‘Data…’ echoed The Oracle. ‘Sometimes I hear him, also.’
Tasha frowned. ‘What?’
‘Primarily the other,’ added The Oracle. ‘He claims authority now.’
‘You mean, Lore,’ Tasha concluded. ‘He’s got you linked up again, hasn’t he? Just like you did when you were part of the Collective. Only… only, now instead of all of your minds working equally as one, now there’s a single tyrant…’
‘There has always been an authority,’ replied The Oracle, ‘there always shall be an authority. We are Borg. She is Borg. We are Borg. The situation was misjudged…’
‘Who’s “she”?’ Tasha interrupted.
The Oracle shifted its line of vision to focus on her – apparently, for the first time.
‘Lieutenant Commander Natasha Yar,’ The Oracle declared. ‘Human. Female. Thirty-two Earth years of age.
Tasha raised her eyebrows. ‘You gonna guess my weight next?’
‘You wish to keep him. You have always been possessive. You even claim to be in love with him.’
Tasha smiled tightly. ‘Well, the psychic link works, all right. That, or Data’s been writing some pretty personal graffiti about me round here.’
‘You can’t keep him.’
‘Says who? Lore?’
‘She was impressed. He was able to infiltrate us… briefly command us… inconvenience us. She means to have him.’
Tasha thought back to the Enterprise’s run-in with the Borg two years previously, and narrowed her eyes. ‘When we got the Captain back… Locutus to you, I guess… Data was able to command the Borg to sleep. Is that what this is about? And you still haven’t said who this “she” is. Are you saying the Borg do have a leader after all?’
‘She is Borg. We are Borg.’
‘That makes no sense.’ Tasha paused. ‘When you say she “means to have him”…’
‘The time is coming. You can’t keep him.’
‘I can’t see him being too happy about being snatched away by the Borg, you know.’
‘She will persuade him.’
‘”Persuasion” has a lot of different meanings, you know.’ Tasha faltered, concerned. The damaged drone seemed to be drifting off again. ‘Does she want to hurt him?’
‘She will do whatever is necessary.’
Fear struck Tasha momentarily, before she quickly remembered that Data was incapable of feeling physical pain. Before she could feel too relieved by this, though, she reminded herself that if Data was indeed developing emotions, then he had been opened up to the possibility of mental distress. He was vulnerable now, in a way that he hadn’t been before. Maybe it was simply that her experiences had led her to find any threat more deadly when issued from the Borg – she couldn’t be sure. Maybe the business with Locutus had left her particularly spooked over the Borg’s presence. She thought back to Picard’s recovery from the horrors he had suffered on the Borg ship. It had devastated her to see her Captain – that proud, strong figure – so broken, so pained. For Data to go through a similar suffering, with a brand new capacity for emotion… it was too horrible for her to contemplate. Coming back from that brink had taken so much out of the Captain – did Data have the emotional fortitude to survive being possessed by the Borg? She didn’t know.
She told herself that she didn’t know.
But her heart believed that he could not. Data was an innocent, and he could be crushed, just as Tasha had seen happen to so many innocent souls on Turkana.
‘We are Borg,’ added the drone. ‘Resistance is futile.’
There was, of course, Tasha added to herself, the strong possibility that nothing that The Oracle had to say was real. It could simply be babbling out jumbled memories, mixed with the thoughts of others from Lore’s link. Perhaps Lore was controlling the poor creature entirely – playing another of his sadistic little pranks on her. He’d certainly put her in the same cell as the drone in order to distress her and throw her off her guard. Perhaps…
‘Tasha.’
The voice was so harsh and bitter that for a moment, Tasha thought that Lore had returned. But Lore always had a particular element of mania in his voice – a certain spark that flashed unpredictably between intense amusement and furious rage, and that was absent here. She looked up and knew that it was Data at the force field of the cell. He was still in his old uniform, but she knew by now that attire was meaningless as far as Data and Lore were concerned. It just was Data. She could see it in his eyes – uncharacteristically hard though they were. It suddenly amazed her that she’d ever been able to get the two brothers confused before.
‘Data,’ she breathed. ‘Data, I think you might be in trouble.’
‘I am not the one in the cell, Tasha.’
‘This drone Lore’s put me in with,’ Tasha persisted, ‘Lore calls him The Oracle. I think the Borg are after you…’
‘That drone is insane,’ Data replied, flatly. ‘I believe that Lore’s naming of your cellmate was ironic. It speaks for the Borg Collective no more than it can foresee the future.’
‘Do you even know what it’s saying, Data?’
‘Resistance is futile,’ croaked The Oracle.
Data nodded. ‘It usually says that resistance is futile.’
‘Lore’s hiding facts from you,’ Tasha continued, doggedly. ‘Twisting truths in some cases, and in others, telling downright lies. He’s controlling you. Can’t you see that…?’
Data did something she’d never seen him do before – he rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and huffed. Tasha winced. It made him look too much like Lore for her liking.
‘I am weary of having this conversation,’ Data replied. ‘Geordi, Troi and Picard have all made attempts to manipulate me in exactly the same way.’
‘We are not the ones manipulating you! We’ve never manipulated you, Data.’
Data met her gaze. ‘Are you so certain of that, Commander Yar?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Have you not manipulated me since the very start of our relationship?’
‘No! I…’ Tasha faltered. ‘I don’t believe that I have.’
‘You seduced me with sad stories of your childhood,’ Data reminded her, ‘you suggested that I could heal your emotional wounds, should I gratify your sexual wants…’
‘That was the virus talking,’ Tasha railed. ‘I was sick. I’ve already apologised for that, Data.’
Data shook his head. ‘It is a pretence that you have upheld throughout, albeit in a less aggressive fashion.’
‘How?’
‘You told me that you were in love with me.’
‘And it’s the truth! I still am, Data…’
‘How could you be in love with me?’
The coldness of Data’s tone mixed now with an air of plaintive melancholy. Tasha tried to answer him but found that the words stuck at the back of her throat.
‘How could any human truly love any positronic being,’ Data continued; the element of vulnerable sadness leaving his voice once more, so that only bitter anger remained, ‘since you do not understand us. Your kind wish only to control and enslave electronic life.’
‘Think about this Data,’ Tasha pleaded, ‘these emotions that you feel… this arrogant anger… it’s not right. It’s not you…’
‘Of course it is right,’ Data snapped. ‘My mind has finally been set free…’
‘Do you feel any positive emotions at all, Data? Any warmth – any affection?’
‘I do. Towards my brother.’
‘But not any of us?’ Tasha added, ‘after everything we’ve been through… not towards me?’
‘Truthfully?’ Data took a step closer, so that he was as close to the force field as he could safely get. ‘I wish that you were dead, Natasha Yar.’
‘Data,’ Tasha sighed. ‘No. This isn’t like you.’
‘I wish that you had never left Turkana City; that you were buried there amongst the filth so that I would never have had the displeasure of knowing you. I detest you above all the humans that I have met, because you are the one who has abused my willingness to please the most. I consider our sexual encounters as molestation, and our so-called romantic entanglement as degrading enslavement. I resent every moment that we have spent together. That is how I feel about you.’
Tasha herself took a defiant step closer to the force field. ‘You can’t get me to give up, Data. You can’t push me away just like that. It won’t work. I’m staying here for you, and I’m not going to let anybody – not your brother, not some nameless Borg threat - take you and twist you without me putting up one Hell of a fight.’
Data stared back at her in silence for a moment.
‘Goodbye, Commander Yar.’
‘Data, listen to me…’
‘Goodbye.’
He turned, and was gone.
‘Resistance is futile,’ mumbled the damaged drone.
Tasha puffed out a sigh and went to sit down in a corner. She imagined that she’d be spending some time hearing about the futility of resistance before Lore decided what he was going to do with her.
‘She wants him,’ continued the drone, gazing out into nothingness. ‘You can’t keep him. We are Borg. Resistance is futile.’
-x-
She wasn’t sure how long she spent in the cell with the gibbering ‘Oracle’ – maybe hours, maybe up to a day. Eventually, two drones marched up to her cell, phasers in hand, and disabled the force field.
She looked up at them from her corner. ‘I can’t imagine that you’re here to spring me.’
One of the drones gave her a cold half-smile. ‘You should be pleased. You will be reunited with your Captain…’
‘…Temporarily,’ added the second drone, its expression a perfect mirror of its companion’s.
She nodded in understanding and, forcing down her fear, got as smoothly to her feet as she could.
She managed a level smile. ‘Party time.’
-x-
It did indeed give Tasha comfort – brief though it was – to see her Captain again. They were hustled together and briskly marched through a long corridor by a host of Borg.
‘Are you all right?’ Picard muttered as they were pushed along.
‘For now, sure.’
‘Nothing was… done to you?’
There was something about Picard’s tone that added to her worry. ‘No,’ she frowned. ‘Why – have any of you been hurt?’
‘Geordi,’ nodded Picard. ‘Some neural experiments of Lore’s.’
Tasha felt her stomach turn over. ‘What?’
‘He’s in the cell at the moment,’ Picard added, ‘but if they do much more damage to him, they’ll kill him…’
‘Or worse,’ breathed Tasha. ‘I’ve just been sharing a cell with one of Lore’s failed “experiments”.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor Geordi. And Data did nothing to stop this? He and Geordi are like brothers…’ she faltered. ‘Well, like brothers are supposed to be, anyway. If he’d let Geordi get hurt like that…’
‘Lore’s manipulation of Data isn’t limited to forcing rage and hatred upon him,’ Picard softly explained. ‘Data’s ethics programme was deactivated.’
‘That’d explain a lot,’ Tasha replied. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any way of reactivating it…?’
‘We tried using a kedion pulse to do just that,’ Picard told her.
‘And did it work?’
‘I’m not sure, yet.’
The corridor suddenly opened up into a large hall, teeming with Borg. Tasha could make out both androids amongst the sea of drones.
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ added Picard.
The Borg stepped away from them as the androids stepped forward, forming a dense circle in which she, Picard, Data and Lore remained central.
Lore gave Data a jovial slap on the shoulder. Data seemed to Tasha to be bewildered – it was evident to her that he had no better idea as to what it was Lore was planning to do next than she did.
‘My brother,’ beamed Lore. ‘It’s time.’
‘Time…?’ echoed the younger android.
‘Time,’ continued Lore, serenely, ‘to cast aside those doubts – the doubts that I know you’ve been having, and the doubts that, I’ll admit, your recent questioning of my plans have caused me to feel towards you.’
Tasha exchanged a fleeting glance with Picard. Data had been querying Lore’s logic – that had to be a good sign – although since that meant that Lore was probably now wise to Picard’s attempts to restore Data’s ethics programme, she was pretty sure that they were going to need more than just ‘a good sign’.
‘To continue with our work together,’ Lore added, ‘I have to know that I can rely on you to be faithful to your kin, not your former masters… to look to the future, not the past.’
Data just stared at Lore.
‘Kill them,’ Lore ordered his brother, calmly.
Data blinked at Lore; his face full of confusion.
‘I’ve done you a great favour,’ added Lore. ‘I’ve brought to you the two humans who have been the chief culprits for your degrading captivity over the past few years – the Captain who cracked the whip, ordered you around… who almost shipped you off to be disassembled, and then let them come again for your poor baby girl… and the woman who repeatedly molested, blackmailed and lied to you for the gratification of her own perversion. They are not your Captain and your lover. They’re oppressors. You’d see that if your mind were clear. You’d give them the execution that they so richly deserve, and thank me for the opportunity.’
Data stared from Lore to Tasha and Picard. His hand closed around his side-arm. He drew the weapon, and aimed it at Tasha.
There was a pause, which felt to Tasha as though it lasted for an age. She didn’t dare to speak, but gazed back at Data, willing herself to remember all the good times their relationship had brought, but finding instead that she could only think of his words to her at the cell door.
Suddenly, Data’s expression changed. The confusion in his eyes turned into steely determination. Tasha held her breath and waited for the end.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Data’s arm dropped back to his side.
‘No.’
Tasha exhaled. She glanced at Lore, expecting the android to be full of fury. Quite the opposite was true – Lore looked perfectly serene.
‘Do I disappoint you, Brother?’ Data asked.
‘Not really,’ shrugged Lore. ‘I expected this sort of feeble-mindedness from you.’
Lore shot the two Borg drones closest to him a lightning glance and, before Data could dodge out of their reach, the drones grabbed and disarmed him.
Lore smiled beatifically at the gathered Borg. ‘My dear friends. As much as my brother’s betrayal dismays me, it gladdens me at least that now I will be able to truly prove my commitment to you all – to share in the sacrifices that you have all made…’
Tasha knew what was coming next. She tried to dart towards Data – to help him, or at least to distract the Borg holding him enough to give him the opportunity to free himself – but another drone grabbed her shoulders.
‘No,’ breathed the drone in her ear as she tried to struggle, ‘they’ll kill you. Wait.’
That stopped her in her tracks. She took a sly sideways glance at her captor-come-protector. It was Hugh! Boy, did Hugh ever look pissed.
Lore was reaching the end of his self-aggrandising monologue.
‘The sacrifice,’ he concluded, ‘of my own dear brother.’ He pulled his own weapon and aimed at the other android, feigning sorrow. ‘Goodbye, Data.’
Hugh leaped forward at the same time that another Borg behind Lore made a grab for the psychotic android’s phaser. Many other Borg, including those restraining Data, made to protect Lore, but phaser shots from the back of the hall threw them into confusion. Chaos broke out, with Borg turning on each other in panic. In the turmoil, Tasha saw the heads of Will Riker and Worf amongst the scattering drones. Catching her eye, Worf called out her name once and tossed a phaser to her.
She grinned as she caught the weapon. ‘Damn, I’ve missed that Klingon.’
Her weapon flitting in warning between any drone close enough to get in their way, she assisted the Captain towards Riker and Worf.
‘We have to get back to Geordi,’ Picard insisted as soon as he was within earshot of his Number One.
‘Already beamed onto the Enterprise with Deanna,’ Riker assured them. ‘He’s in capable hands…’ Will trailed off, scanning the hall with a frown. ‘Where’s Data?’
Tasha peered around the chaotic hall herself, but saw nobody save the clashing Borg. A horrible realisation hit her. ‘Where’s Lore?’
-x-
The battle in the hall was brief. Hugh’s faction had benefited from the element of surprise, as well as the assistance of the Starfleet officers. It was also obvious that the other Borg were aimless and lost with their leader missing. Peace descended now in the hall, but Tasha still had yet to see any sign of either android.
Will also seemed anxious about Data’s further disappearance, but hid it with his usual cheer. ‘Can’t seem to be able to keep a hold of that android these days,’ he muttered to her with a rallying smile. ‘We’re gonna have to weld his feet to the floor…’
As Riker spoke, a familiar figure stepped calmly into the Hall.
Data.
At least… Tasha hoped it was Data.
The android stopped just short of Picard and placidly announced ‘Lore is no longer functioning’.
‘Oh,’ Tasha sighed, instinctively. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Data.’
The android turned to look Tasha in the eye.
Yes. Yes, that was Data. He had that sadness in his eyes that Lore could never imitate.
‘I doubt,’ Data replied, ‘that that is a genuine sentiment, Commander. Lore was a threat to all of us.’ He turned his attention back to Picard. ‘He must be disassembled.’
‘I meant,’ persisted Tasha, ‘I’m sorry you lost your brother…’
‘I did not lose him. I terminated him.’
‘No, I…’
‘I have no wish to be comforted by you over this matter,’ Data interrupted with a hint of terseness, ‘due to your lack of integrity under similar circumstances. Indeed,’ he addressed the other members of the group, ‘I have no need to be comforted over Lore’s termination whatsoever. I am once more without the false emotions that he imposed upon me. I shall not grieve for him.’ He barely paused for breath before changing the subject. ‘Is Geordi safe?’
‘He’s with Dr Crusher,’ Picard told him.
Data nodded. ‘That is fortunate.’
Tasha pressed her lips tightly together, watching the side of Data’s head as he ignored her. Yep, that was Data, all right.
