Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [54]
His eyes, he was startled to discover, were blue.
Why that should surprise him he could not fathom; it was the second most common eye color among humans. Probably, he decided, he would have been equally surprised to find them brown, green, or hazel comany color except the gold that had always looked back at him.
Just then Data felt the vibration of the ship change. They were leaving orbit-and accelerating to high warp speeds. It did not take android senses to feel the increasing stress as the great vehicle was pushed to its limits. Without thinking, Data turned and left his quarters-Only when the turbolift doors opened to deliver him to the bridge did he recall that he was off-duty.
Captain Picard looked up from his center seat.
“Mr. Data, you are not scheduled for this shift.”
“Yes, sir. But why are we proceeding at highest warp?” “Commander,” the captain said dangerously, “you do not have bridge clearance at the present time.”
Wesley Crusher was at the helm. At that he turned, and stared wide-eyed at Data.
The scene was tense, but the viewscreen showed nothing but passing stars, and the ship was not on alert status.
Data backed off. “You are correct, Captain. I shall be in my quarters.”
When he had returned there, Data did what he now realized he should have done in the first place: called up the bridge log on his computer.
The Enterprise was responding to a priority directive from Starfleet Command: a planet in the Samdian Sector reported attacks from a race of beings called the Konor. Their attempts to engage their attackers in any kind of dialogue had failed. They knew only that their people were being slaughtered.
None of the three planets in the Samdian Sector were members of the Federation, or even allies. They had always been fiercely independent, trading with one another but showing no interest in the Federation or any other culture. However, they were calling for help now from anyone who might be willing to heed their plea. As “anyone” included Orions, Ferengi, and possibly even Romulans, the Federation had a vested interest in responding to their call for help.
The Enterprise was the closest Federation ship with personnel qualified to take on the job. Their orders were to contact both sides and find out what the dispute was about, in hopes of finding a peaceful solution. The messages from the Samdians indicated they had no idea why they were being attacked. There were no messages from the Konor.
Even at top warp, it would take several days to reach the Samdian Sector. Data was glad; he had lost nothing of his insatiable curiosity, and was determined to be back to full duty status by the time they arrived. That might be more difficult than he had thought at first. His faux pas in going to the bridge just nowsome of his automatic programming must have translated as habit. As an android, had he been instructed to remain off duty for a specific period, he would have placed a temporary “cancel” on his “in case of 151 emergency, unless otherwise instructed report to the bridge” response. But as a human, he had no way to cancel a conditioned response except to keep his mind carefully on his first priority: getting accustomed to his new physiology so that he could return to duty as quickly and efficiently as possible. He instructed the computer to inform him of any new developments, and returned to his personal objectives.
Data had the strangest sense that there were a thousand things he ought to do next, and he could not think of one of them. His