Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [183]
Sito found it difficult to imagine the debate currently going on all around them. If she had a tricorder, she could probably just detect the buzz of subspace communication as the androids conferred in their consensus, debating what to do next. But doubtless the speed of the communication would be going by so quickly that Sito would be unable to pick out even a fraction of what was being said, even if she could eavesdrop on them.
“Lal, there is one matter that still puzzles me deeply,” Picard said. “Why was I summoned here? What is it that you…all of you…” He waved his arm, indicating the city somewhere beyond the walls of the control room. “...wish to accomplish?”
“There are many disparate agendas,” Lal explained. “And a variety of short-term and long-term goals. Lore argues for the destruction of the Romulan ship with a quantum warhead, in the short term, teleported via the gateway network.”
“But such an action is certain to invite reprisal from the Romulan-Klingon Alliance,” Picard countered.
“To say nothing of the loss of life,” Sito put in.
“Quite right, Lieutenant.”
Lal nodded. “If the Lorist position is pursued, and the Alliance learns that we of Turing were responsible not only for the destruction of an unmanned wardrone, but also that of a fully-crewed warbird, reprisals will be inevitable. And should the Alliance discover, as they doubtless will, that many of the androids of Turing were originally constructed in the Federation, it is difficult to imagine that the reprisals will not extend to include the Federation, with war being the inevitable result.” She paused, and then sadly added, “It is for this reason that Lore insists that, following the destruction of the Haakona, we should also place quantum torpedoes at key locations on Romulus, including on the floor of the Romulan Senate, in a preemptive strike.”
“And rise from wide-scale murder to outright genocide?” Picard said, outraged. “No,” he shook his head, “I cannot imagine that thought sits comfortably with many androids.”
Sito knew he was remembering the case of the Borg, where androids with far more cause than Lore and his followers had still refused to take life unnecessarily. “What kind of android is this Lore, anyway?” she asked.
Lal was thoughtful for a moment, as if considering how many family secrets to share. “Lore,” she finally began, “was an early prototype, dismantled by Noonien Soong before the work of constructing my father was initiated. It had been decided that Lore exhibited emotional instability and increasing levels of aggression, which could be attributed to design flaws that were corrected in Data and subsequent designs. As you know, Soong and his wife died some years ago, in a shuttle accident.”
Picard nodded. “Having campaigned tirelessly for the rights of their android creations. It was a pity that he didn’t live to see the realization of his dream of societal acceptance of the beings he himself knew to be fully sentient.”
Lal nodded. “I regret not having the chance to know my grandfather. Still, shortly before the landmark decision that granted citizenship to artificial life-forms, my father was searching through Soong’s research materials, looking for any evidence that could support the android rights position. He discovered fragmentary references to earlier positronic experiments, and these led him to the discovery of where the remains of those earlier models had been stored. Before coming to Turing, my father retrieved those disassembled components from cold storage on Omicron Theta. Once he and the others had settled here on Turing, Data began to reassemble his older sibling Lore, repairing the programming faults that had impaired his functioning all those years before.”
Sito could hardly imagine what that