Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [102]
Fortunately, she mistook his fumbling, saying, “Don’t be embarrassed-I’m not holding you to any promises. Neither of us made any, did we?”
“No. It’s best that way, when we don’t know if we’ll ever meet again.” “We will, Data-I’m sure of that. And I hope it will be under happier circumstances.” She smiled, but it was a sad smile. “Think of us when your current tour of duty is over. You may be ready to leave Starfleet once you’ve proved you can still handle anything they throw at you.” Again he allowed her to misinterpret his motivations, let her kiss him softly on the cheek, and say goodbye.
He recognized his emotion, but not its source.
There was no reason, no reason at all, that he should react with embarrassment to Pris. He liked her!
He honestly found her attractive and appealing, and yet he had been unfair to her.
When that thought surfaced, he examined it more closely. What had he done that was unfair to Pris? She was not in love with him. She liked him, he liked her, and they had spent a most pleasurable time together.
How was that unfair to her? Too tired to think, and yet with the thoughts repeating in his head, Data decided he ought at least to try to sleep. By habit, he turned to put everything in his outer room back into place before turning out the lights-and saw the hologram base still on his desk. For the first time he realized how much Pris was like Tasha. Both were slender, blond, intelligent, and assertive.
Both had chosen a life of action and danger.
Is that it? Did I accept Pris because she reminds me of someone I cannot have? That would certainly be reason enough to feel I have been unfair to her.
Accepting that as a working hypothesis, Data decided that tonight he would not think further about his mistake, except to vow never to repeat it. He also refused to let his mind return to the Samdian situation. While the rest of the Enterprise crew might have to invent ways to take their minds off their inability to help the Samdians until permission came to abandon their mission, Data had necessary work to do, restoring the knowledge he had lost. He ordered the computer to set him a course of study to begin in the morning, and went to bed.
By Data’s next duty shift, Starfleet had given the Enterprise a new assignment, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the reminder of their failure swung off the viewscreen.
In routine flight, Wesley Crusher returned to the helm. Midway through the shift, Captain Picard sent Data to the science station to study the records of seismic activity on Beta Tharsis Four, where a mining 284 colony needed help in reinforcing their underground compound before it collapsed from shifting gravitational stresses. Ensign Serena Gibson came to take Data’s place at Ops. As before, he noticed-how lovely, how female, she was-then caught himself. Another slender blonde. Was this an obsession?
The time it took to examine his reaction kept him lingering beside the Ops console long enough to notice Wesley look over at Gibson, blush, then return determinedly to close inspection of his own console-on which, as they were in routine flight, he had absolutely nothing to do. Data went up to the science station, and soon became immersed in the problem of Beta Tharsis Four. He took his conclusions to Geordi, and by the time the Enterprise reached its destination they had designed a method of reinforcing the mining colony without forcing the inhabitants to evacuate. From there, the Enterprise went to Starbase 92 for vaccine to deliver to Ghandi Seven. After that, they ferried a bevy of scientists to the science colony on Nisus.
No one missed the pattern: The Enterprise was being given obviously beneficial assignments as a reminder that Starfleet missions seldom ended in the kind of frustration they had known in the Samdian Sector. Slowly, tensions