Survivors - Jean Lorrah [102]
Still … it was something like his anticipation, opinion, and gestalt programs. Consciously, he let his search function examine the data that formed his opinion that Adin was innocent. The man’s actions. His activities as the Silver Paladin. His Starfleet record before the Starbound incident-On his last mission before the training cruise of the Starbound, the defeat of the Orions at Conquiido had been led by Assistant Security Chief Darryl Adin of the U.S.S. Seeker. In recognition, he had been promoted to Commander, and sent to the Academy to update his training prior to posting aboard one of the larger starships.
When the Starbound was assigned to transport dilithium, how could the Orions miss the opportunity to steal such a treasure, and at the same time destroy the man who had dealt that hard and recent blow to their plans of conquest? The prosecution charged that the Orions had not missed it-that they had worked on Darryl Adin’s greed to lure him into conspiring with them, and then let him “take the fall.”
But what if they had not found such a weakness in his character? What if the tenuous evidence linking Adin to the Orions were forged? If the man were innocent, he must be set free.
Even if when he left the Enterprise he took Tasha with him.
The moment he was off duty, Data went straight to his quarters and instructed the ship’s computer to link directly with the main computer at Starbase 36.
“That is not necessary for the files you are seeking,” the female voice told him. “All data from those files is in the ship’s computer.”
“I must have access to the memory in which that data was originally stored.”
“You are creating an unnecessary overload on ship’s communications,” the computer objected.
“Just do it,” said Data. “That is an order.”
As he expected, the memory of the main computer at Starbase 36 was a Standard Unlimited Virtual. What he had done with Nalavia’s computer was impossible, for there was no physical storage to retain discarded information.
Yet … Data’s own brain was a highly-advanced adaptation of the same concept, and he remembered every experience. Even given the instruction, “It never happened,” he did not forget; he simply inserted a new command not to act on that information. He placed a similar safeguard on information requiring a security clearance, so that he would neither divulge it upon a routine request for information nor speak or act in such a way as to reveal that the secured information existed.
Data had used computers with unlimited virtual memory all his life, but never before questioned what happened to information deleted from them. Was it truly erased, or did it simply become inaccessible? There was supposed to be no way to retrieve it.
No human way.
But suppose he could access the memory of the Starbase 36 computer directly, using his own mind to manage the data? Intriguing! Whether he accomplished his goal or not, it would be a unique experience-
- and a potentially dangerous one. He was almost certain he could make the connection. But … would he be able to disconnect? Was his personal consciousness strong enough, differentiated enough from that of a sophisticated computer, to allow him to maintain his identity?
There was only one way to find out. Cautiously, Data tapped into the link the ship’s computer had provided, trying to remain conscious of his own body seated at his terminal while his mind reached out—
The starbase computer had no personality, no self-awareness to object to his intrusion. He found he could impose his own order on the chaotic mass of information: just think about the stardates he wanted, and he had access to the comlink data, hotel registrations, everything. It all matched the evidence provided at Darryl Adin’s court-martial.
But had it been changed, tampered with in any way?
As Data formulated the question, he … felt something. In its information processing mechanism, the computer’s brain had similarities to his own-and he sensed familiar patterns associated with that particular set of data.