Possession - J.M. Dillard [81]
“I just think you’re putting the cart before the horse, Data,” Geordi insisted, his tone strained. “What good does it do us to create a holding pen when we haven’t figured out how to get the things in there?”
“That is a valid point,” Data allowed. He decided not to remind Geordi that when the android had attempted to theorize ways to disable the entities and render them harmless, Geordi found a way to deny the possibility of each and every theory. And when Data attempted to analyze the various ways they might safely exorcise the entities from their living hosts, Geordi found ways to deny those possibilities as well.
Ever since the meeting with Picard, one thing had been troubling Data—one thing he decided not to discuss with his closest friend—and now Geordi’s strange, uncooperative behavior only added to his concern. Ever since the meeting, Data had been analyzing and reanalyzing one issue: how Picard’s communiqué from Starfleet had avoided all the normal protocols and computer relays to be shunted into storage.
It had been cleverly accomplished. Had the perpetrator tried to force the computer to destroy the message, dozens of fail-safes would have alerted the crew. By simply rerouting it to the destination it would inevitably occupy—archives—instead, the conspirator almost guaranteed the message would never be seen. It was sheer luck—a random series of events in one’s favor that Data didn’t believe in—that an ensign would see the communiqué and realize it might not have been seen.
But luck hadn’t caused the computer to act as though it had; that had been a deliberate act of sabotage. And only two officers aboard the Enterprise were capable of reprogramming the computer on that level: Commander La Forge and Data himself.
“Geordi,” Data said reluctantly, knowing that La Forge would merely present one obstacle after another to his work, “I must ask you something.”
La Forge faced him, his face nearly expressionless behind his VISOR.
“I have analyzed this situation as thoroughly as I can, and I have come to the conclusion that you are responsible for reprogramming the computers so that the captain would not receive his communiqué from Starfleet. What I cannot determine is why.”
La Forge’s expression never changed as he said easily, “That’s crazy, Data. Why would I reprogram the computers to do something so strange?”
Why indeed? Data wondered, but he already suspected he knew. “The only possible reason would be to prevent the captain from discovering more information on the infectious entities.”
His android eyes could see far better than Geordi’s VISOR could. In fact, Data knew his eyes could see far better than the more organic eyes that Dr. Tarmud was constructing. They would have the limited vision of true human eyes. Human eyes would have missed the nearly imperceptible flush of Geordi’s skin, and the slight tightening of his muscles. Stress reactions, Data knew.
“Data, we don’t have time to play Sherlock Holmes right now,” Geordi grumbled.
The android was about to respond when his comm badge signaled. “Commander Data! This is Captain Picard! We have an emergency in sickbay! Report here at once.”
Data made a slight, barely perceptible move to rise; when he did, Geordi swung.
Data’s reflexes were too quick, of course; he simply reached out, easily capturing the fist before it touched his face. Irrationally, La Forge swung the other; again, the android caught it with little effort.
Around them, personnel stopped to watch the bizarre nonbattle as the chief engineer attempted to attack Data, who never budged from his seat despite the considerable force the human exerted against him—too much force, Data knew, for a normal human.
“Geordi, please stop this. You will only harm yourself,” he warned, but La Forge was crazed, shrieking, clawing, punching wildly—all of the blows having absolutely no effect.
Then Data realized the other crew members weren’t just watching in amazement—they were reacting, moving closer, their expressions revealing frank appetite.
They were feeding off La Forge’s uncontrolled rage.