The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [79]
Data wished again that be could laugh the way they did. Only once had he experienced true laughter; it was now a cherished memory. Q was a quixotic and often dangerous being, but he had given the android a great gift on that one notable occasion when he made it possible for Data, however briefly, to laugh.
When they reached the transporter room, Geordi notified Selar of their location, and then the two officers stood waiting. Geordi seemed to find the minutes extremely taxing. He fidgeted and paced uneasily. Data stood patiently while Chief O’Brien fitted him with a transponder that he’d adapted especially for the android, so the transporter chief would be able to keep a constant fix on him, in order to beam him back at a moment’s notice.
The doors to the transporter room slid open, and Wesley Crusher and Doctor Selar entered. “My adjustments are complete,” Selar told Geordi. “Wesley helped me finish the last of them.”
The teenager walked over to the android, his eyes troubled in his thin face. “Data, I want you to know that I think you’re really brave to do this for all of us,” he said quietly.
“My actions do not seem to me to require courage, Wesley,” the android officer said. “Merely the desire to preserve ancient art treasures from being forever lost.”
Wes shook his head. “I think that in just about anybody’s book what you’re doing would count as courage, Data.”
Gravely, the boy held out his hand. After a moment, Data shook it, careful as always not to exert too much pressure. “Thala was tagging along on our way down to the transporter room,” the young officer said. “When I told her you were going over to the artifact to try and free us, she said she wanted to tell you something. Would that be okay? She’s waiting outside.”
“That would be fine,” Data said, wondering what the child wanted to see him for.
The acting ensign walked over to the door of the transporter room, opened it, then beckoned. “It’s okay, you can come in.”
A little hesitantly, the Andorian girl walked into the transporter room. “Hello, Thala,” Data said.
“Hello, Data,” she said, then she turned, evidently checking the readings given her by her sensory net. “Oh, hello, Chief O’Brien. Hello, Geordi.”
The officers returned her greeting.
“Thala,” Wesley reminded her, “the captain has given us a deadline. You’ll have to hurry.”
“Okay,” she said, then walked up to Data. “Wesley told me that you’re going to try and stop the artifact from giving all of us those terrible dreams, and that it’s very risky for you. I wanted to say thank you, Data. I think you’re very brave.”
She held out her thin blue hand, but when the android bent over to take it, she impulsively flung her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. Evidently embarrassed by her display of emotion, she turned and raced for the door. The automatic portal barely had time to get out of her way. With a final glittery sparkle from her sensory net, she was gone.
Data turned to Wesley. “When you see her again, tell her I said thank you for the kiss.” The boy nodded. Slowly, deliberately, Data walked over to the portable antigravity unit Selar had set up in the corner, and stretched out on it.
The two humans and the Vulcan busied themselves with final checks on the replacement microcircuitry. Data lay listening to them, until Geordi straightened. “Okay. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be.” The engineer walked over to stand beside the android. “It’s time to turn you off, Data. Okay?”
“I am ready,” Data said steadily. “Wish me luck, Geordi.”
The chief engineer nodded. “All the luck in the universe, Data.” He patted his friend’s shoulder reassuringly. Then La Forge bent over, and Data felt the human’s fingers moving beneath his left arm, searching for his “off” button. He experienced and repressed a sudden urge to change his mind. Am I about to die?
And then, he felt nothing.
Consciousness returned, and with it the knowledge that something was extremely wrong. His surroundings, dimly glimpsed as they were by the infrared portion of his vision, were disorienting in the extreme.