Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [46]
But he, normally imperturbable, impeccable in Starfleet uniform-no wonder Thelia had called him a scarecrow! His face was stuck incongruously on the front of the metal skull protecting the sensors in his head; his chest was a pale triangle streaked with dirt, and his uniform hung in shreds. His arms and legs showed the rods, tubes, and mesh of his internal structure, with the occasional diode flickering weakly.
He was … absurd.
Of all beings in the universe, Data should have the least concern over appearances. Yet he felt disturbed at this distortion of his usual neat image.
Distortion? No-this mirror showed what he really was: a physical housing containing a consciousness that had somehow developed the same vanity as humans, even while it sought to understand their nobler virtues.
How ridiculous. How-How funnyFrom At the spectacle, and at the revelation of his own smug pride … Data laughed.
Thelia chuckled. “We are a sight, aren’t we?
But it doesn’t matter. We’ve come this far, and we’ll make it the rest of the way.”
Data’s laughter faded as he realized that Thelia had no idea of his revelation.
Nor could he attempt to explain. So he said, “This is surely the last obstacle. Is there nothing in your Quest lore to help us decide which path to take?”
As if on cue, a woolly white animal suddenly darted out of the passageway from which they had come, and sped past them through one of the arches. Data saw a collar of gleaming jewels about its neck.
“Follow the white seja!” Thelia exclaimed, sprinting after it. Data followed, but his auxiliary locomotion systems could no longer propel him, as quickly as Thelia could run. No matter-she would tire, and he would, catch up. He heard her footsteps echoing ahead as they traversed a narrow rocky passage that twisted and turned every few meters. He came out into a long, straight pass, seeing Thelia perhaps twenty meters ahead of him, still pursuing the 127 animal. But hardly had he glimpsed them when a door slammed down in front of him, so close and so fast that with his impaired reflexes Data ran into it. He bounced off-into a second door that had closed behind him! He was trapped in a featureless box of stone, the top only centimeters over his head, the width in any direction not enough to stretch his arms out. When he stood still, he could hear nothing, even with his audio input on its highest setting. A patch of the ubiquitous fluorescent lichen gave him dim light, but there was nothing to see.
Testing the limits of his prison, Data tried the walls in every direction, then the ceiling, to no avail. Even with his normal strength, he doubted he could have broken free. Certainly not if the Elysian gods did not want him to.
What danger was Thelia rushing into now, without his help? A memory surfaced, unwanted: Tasha Yar forever striding bravely into danger, until that time on Vagra il when she had met death before Data’s helpless eyes. These Elysian gods had powers the Enterprise crew could not comprehend. Had those powers made them as corrupt as the creature that had killed Tasha? were they toying with their people’s lives? Thelia’s life? “Let me out of here!” Data demanded.
To his amazement, one of the doors slid upward.
It was not, however, the one that led to the path Thelia had taken. “If you want to be literal,” he said, “you have picked a worthy opponent. Let me go to Thelia.”
“That is not permitted. You have completed your Quest. She must he permitted to complete hers.
If she 128 succeeds, you will be allowed to see one another before you are returned from whence you came.”
Shocked at getting an answer, Data did not realize for a moment … “Completed my Quest?”
“The pathway will now lead you to the sanctuary-was Data found himself smiling. He had passed the tests-now he would be able to ask all those questions he had been storing!
The path no longer twisted and turned. It was smooth and easy to walk, but it went on and on, through caverns, then gardens, and only after almost an hour of steady walking