Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [37]
No-it was the kind of “daylight” projected on a holodeck when no specific planet had been selected and so the program did not place a sun in the sky. It was a generic pastoral scene: a lake, a few trees, and strategically placed woods and hills so that one could not see off into the nonexistent distance.
Thelia knelt beside the lake, drinking from her cupped hands. She looked up when he joined her, saying, “The gods provide. Look.”
There were plants growing in the water, some of them bearing blossoms, others fruits ranging from green through red to purple. Thelia plucked two purple ones, handing one to Data. “Do you have pears in your land?” she asked.
“Not exactly like these,” he hedged, accepting the fruit and taking a small bite. His sensors analyzed it as containing some of the components he needed, in small quantities, so he ate it as she did, leaving the core. Thelia tossed the core of hers, with its seeds, back into the water. “More will grow,” she said.
Dr would if this were a real place, Data thought, but did not contradict her. He tossed the core of his own fruit into the lake, then drank some of the water.
Thelia plucked another water pear, and ate it as she walked over to a nearby tree. “Look,” she said, “gring nuts. But people like them just as well.” She started to climb the tree, but Data came over and picked her up so that she could reach the clusters in the branches overhead. When she had both hands full, he set her 102 down and she looked around. “Nothing but rocks until we need some,” she commented.
“Rocks?” Data asked, puzzled.
“To crack the nuts open,” Thelia explained.
“Ah,” said Data, taking one from her and squeezing it between his fingers until the shell cracked.
Then he separated it neatly into two halves and handed it to her.
Thelia laughed again. “I forget how very strong you are. Eat now, and restore yourself.”
But Data needed only a few nutmeats along with the fruit he had already consumed. Interestingly, they provided exactly the electrolytes the pears were missing. Despite the drain of maintaining the organic interface with mechanical components operating at low efficiency, he would not need to replenish his organic nutrients for some time now. When Thelia had eaten her fill, she pocketed the rest of the nuts and said, “I need to sleep again, Data. What about you? Do you not sleep even to heal after injury?”
“No. I shall keep watch again, although I suspect that you are right: The gods have provided us a place of refuge to restore ourselves before we go on.”
She stared at him. “I did not say that, although I was thinking it.” She took his right hand, studying the exposed mechanical components. “You say that you were made, like a doll, and magically brought to life.
Yet you think and act like a person.” She raised her dark eyes to his. “There is only one thing you can be questing for, is there not?”
“I have told you, L wish to meet the gods.”
“Yes-for only the gods can give you a soul.”
“That is not possible,” he said.
“Anything is possible for the gods,” Thelia insisted. “But,” Data asked, “is not the soul, if it exists at all, a consciousness capable of existing beyond the limits of the physical body?” “That is not the wording taught in my land, but the idea is the same.” “Then a soul is not something that can be manufactured and installed. It must exist from the time a person becomes self-aware.
Actually,” he added, “I have official permission to attempt to discover whether or not I have one. Perhaps I should add that to the list of questions I shall ask the gods.” Data’s Starfleet colleagues would probably have considered that statement facetious, but Thelia’s eyes widened. “You do not know whether you have a soul?”
“I have consciousness. I share in common with humans the question of whether that consciousness will continue after my body ceases to function.” “Oh, I hope yours is not a sad story, like that of Calatina.” “Is that the doll you mentioned earlier, whom the gods brought to life?” Data asked. “Please tell me. I do not know that story.”
“A woodcarver made