Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [2]
“Did you think I wanted to win, Doctor?”
Riker replied. The woman’s green eyes flashed. “Do you think I would have wanted you to?
Commander, the disagreements I have with Mr. Data have nothing to do with his autonomy. He is unique in all history-and no experiment should ever be permitted to threaten that uniqueness.”
“Then you think no more Datas should be built?”
Geordi asked, picking up Mystery just as she was about to pounce on the bellflowers. He stroked the cat, and she started to purr.
“I have no objection to other androids being built,” Pulaski replied. “As briefly as I’ve known Data, I know that his particular set of positronic circuits and heuristic algorithms have a distinct and individual personality. So, I assume, would another android, even if built in his image. Each would be a different person, as unique as any human.
No, my differences with our friend have to do solely with his desire to be 6 something else, instead of exploring the possibilities of what he is.” Mystery wriggled out of Geordi’s arms and back onto the tabletop. To distract the cat from the flowers, Riker offered his hand. She rubbed against it, purring loudly as she wove her way from his hand to Pulaski’s, and then to Data’s.
“There-you see?” Pulaski said.
“See what?” asked Riker, Wesley, and Geordi, almost in chorus. Data knew; it happened every time he touched the cat, and he could not explain it.
Mystery was perfectly content to rub against Data, to accept petting from him as she would from anyone else, to take food from his hand … but when he touched her, she did not purr. Up to now, no one else had noticed. “Animals know,” Pulaski affirmed.
“Mystery knows Data is a machine.” “What do you mean?” Geordi asked.
“Geordi, I’ve heard you complain about finding her on consoles in the Engine Room,” Pulaski said with a slightly smug smile. “Cat hair is not beneficial to delicate components,” he replied. “Nor do I like it in my medical instruments, yet not a week goes by that I don’t find that creature curled up on one of my diagnostic units. Nothing I’ve tried will keep her out of sickbay.”
“Mom gave up on it,” Wesley said, “after she discovered that Mystery never enters a quarantined area. She says cats have senses we’ll never understand.” “She may be right,” Pulaski said.
“Cats like nice, warm machines, but they don’t purr for them.
Mystery likes Data, but she knows perfectly well what he is.”
Silence fell as everybody listened intently.
Mystery was still winding back and forth between Data’s hands, more rubbing him than being petted. He had discovered this kept the animal with him longer than attempting to impose his own ideas on her. Just now, though, he wished she would go on to someone else, for Dr. Pulaski was correct-the cat moved without a sound. Riker broke the silence. “The fact that Data is a machine was never the issue. He’s alive and sentient, and that’s what makes him a person.” “My point exactly!” Pulaski exclaimed. She turned to the android. “Data, it disturbs me to see anyone trying to be something else, instead of exploring his own potential.”
“I understand, Doctor,” Data said. “Still, it would be pleasant to be accepted without question.”
“Nobody has that luxury, Data,” Riker pointed out. “Everyone faces challenges.”
“Of course,” Data said with a nod, “challenges to one’s ideas, one’s skills, one’s authority-things one can prove or disprove. were I a flesh-and-blood being, my consciousness would never be questioned.” “At least it’s settled now,” Geordi declared. “No one can dispute it after the trial.”
“You are wrong, Geordi,” Data said.
“Legal rulings are appealed every day, and frequently overturned.eaI do not think Commander