Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [124]
“Then it’s a physical emanation,” Geordi said. “Detection is no problem; we can all do that.
But how do we duplicate it?” “By discovering the receptor and reversing it,” Data said.
“Eliminate direct mind reception, eliminate sensory reception, and … the receptor must be the interface.”
“And the difference between you and us lowly humans, Data, is that you have conscious control of all parts of your body.”
“Theoretically. I have no consciousness of that interface.”
“Well, theoretically, then. Just try to switch over from “receive’ to “send.”” “You are suggesting that I try to stop operating with an … open mind?”
Geordi grinned. “Jokes under stress, eh?
You are getting human, Data.” He sobered.
“You’re constructed so you can’t harm yourself, aren’t you?”
“That could be the reason I am not aware of the interface. But then, the effect could be a necessary consequence of sentience. All right-I shall try.”
Data sat back in his chair, so that he could focus all his awareness, even that small portion usually reserved for keeping his body balanced. Although he could call up information from sensors all around it, he had no sense that the interface was there. He remembered the first time BruceeaMaddox had examined him, how he had tried to explain this very lack of awareness, and thus his inability to tell the man how the linkage worked.
He had been far less articulate in dealing with humans in those days, before his experiences at Starfleet Academy and later working with such a variety of fellow crew members in space.
Looking back on it now, he could almost see why Maddox had decided he was not a sentient being. After repeating several times that he had no sensory apparatus capable of isolating the interface, he had finally attempted an analogy. “Humans have a blind spot in either eye, was he pointed out, “where the optic nerve is attached to the retina. his “Yes, that is so, was Maddox agreed.
“Yet you are not aware of it. When you look out of only one eye, you perceive a complete field of view. There is no blank space, as it were, where the blind spot is. his “That’s true, was Maddox acknowledged.
“So it is with my lack of sensors to the interface: 1 have no perception that they are missing. his He wondered now if the mystery thus left as to his operation was what had tempted Maddox into the further study of positronics. Then he put the thought aside, recognizing it as a form of procrastination. Geordi was right: he did fear tampering with a part of himself he did not fully understand.
But there were lives at stake. The Konor would never listen to anyone who could not communicate by the method they thought to be soul to soul.
Data understood the structure of the filament links to his anterior cortex, but not the theory behind their function. Theoretically, they could not function as they did, because of the electron resistance … and yet they did function. Would that the interaction between his organic and inorganic components were as simple as that between matter and antimatter! He and Geordi had intended, before encountering total frustration, to build a transmitter that could be hooked into the universal translator. Then any emissaries the Federation sent could communicate with the Konor. But there was no way to modify an organic brain to send as well as receive on a particular frequency.
Could a positronic brain be so modified?
Either kill me or let me go!
It was the Konor, in the brig, his thoughts so emphatic that they carried throughout the ship. Data realized