Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [114]
Instead he was told, “Your wish has been granted. You have experienced what your life would be like as a human. The dream is ended, Data ofStarfeet. It never happened.”
Data smiled. Did these “gods” truly think that saying it never happened would erase his memory of the dread scenario he had experienced so vividly?
He would put an access denial code on it, of course, but-The Elysian transporter effect began to pulse around Data. As if suddenly released from denied access, his internal clock told him it was not fifty days into the future.
Why should he need to be informed that it was not fifty days from now? He knew when and where he was, in the transporter beam on the way to investigating Elysia’s mysterious island.
It was as if he had been switched off and back on. 316 There was always a momentary disorientation as he adjusted his active memory to his internal clock.
When his diagnostics reported everything normal, Data dismissed the absured idea that his memory had adjusted backward, rather than forward. It must be an effect of Elysia’s peculiar gravitational anomalies. It could not be imagination. After all, androids do not dream.
At the foot of Elysia’s sacred mountain, four Enterprise away team members regrouped after circling the island, frustrated at finding nothing to report but a cave opening, invisible to the organic eyes of Riker and Worf and even to Data’s instrumentation, detectable only by Geordi’s VISOR. “Wait,” said Data as they moved into position for beamup. “There is a lifeform reading-but it is faint. No …” he frowned at the faint flicker on the tricorder screen, and turned up the gain. “Commander, I cannot get an accurate directional reading, and on open range your readings interfere.”
Riker nodded. “We’ll get out of your way, then.” He tapped his combadge. “Three to beam up, Mr. O’Brien. Mr. Data to follow at his command.” “Are you all right, sir?”
O’Brien’s voice was tight with tension. “Of course. Why wouldn’t we be?”
“The ship’s Red Alert warnings suddenly went off, with no reason for activation-and then there was another of those power surges. It seems to be over now, but-was “Is your instrumentation working?” Geordi demanded, tapping his own badge.
“Yes-everything reads normal.”
“Then get us out of here!”
Data stepped away from the other three. They dissolved in the transporter beam, and he turned up the gain on his tricorder again. Nothing. He turned full circle, annoyed; he could not have been fooled by that flicker-He was about to signal for beamup when he heard a sudden splashing noise. Looking toward the swamp, he saw nothing until he used infrared vision to penetrate the fog. There was someone coming!
Fascinated, Data watched the boat with its lone occupant approach the shore. Suddenly she looked up. It was a woman, tired and bedraggled from her arduous journey.
Data was overcome with a sensation unique in his experience. It was as if he had been in this situation before, watching the boat approach-Did he have a memory circuit malfunction? Was he affected by the power surge? At the same moment, he realized that the woman was now close enough to glimpse him through the swamp fog.
She must not see him! This was a religious sanctuary to the Elysians; she must be here on one of their sacred Quests.
Data darted behind a rock.
He must have had some kind of malfunction to have stood staring at her through the fog, letting her get close enough that she might have seen him. According to the Prime Directive, he had no right to risk discovery. And by closing the channel he had trapped himself the chitter of his combadge would carry to 318 the woman’s ears, as would the sound of the transporter. He could not risk having her come to see what the noises were, just in time to see a person disappear into thin air.
Still, his error gave him a chance to watch, to see whether the Elysian “gods” would communicate with this Questor. Data held perfectly still, waiting for her to go on up to the mountain, before he called for beamup. The woman, though, was looking around the island.