Path: news.inforamp.net!news2.toronto.istar.net!news3.ottawa.istar.net!istar.net!imci2!news.internetMCI.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news-e2a.gnn.com!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsbf02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: lskywa@aol.com (LSkYwa) Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: REPOST: Affinities (TNG, Data/f, R) 4/10 Date: 3 May 1996 10:49:13 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 315 Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com Message-ID: <4md6d9$8ak@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Reply-To: lskywa@aol.com (LSkYwa) NNTP-Posting-Host: newsbf02.mail.aol.com Status: N Affinities (A Data Story) (4/10) USUAL DISCLAIMER: All rights on the characters introduced in Star Trek, The Next Generation, belong to PARAMOUNT, except the characters specially invented for this story. This story is written for adults beyond the age of 18. (4) Time had been flying. Too short were the hours they had spent together until he was called to duty. Some serious problems in the engineering section, and he was the only one to help. Lavinia remembered why she had sworn never to fall in love with a starfleet officer. And there was another thing that set her to thinking. Data had been tender, caring, trying hard to give her whatever she wanted. He was a good lover, no doubt. He was perfect, fulfilling all wishes. But this time she had discovered that there was a gap between them. She suspected that he might have been disappointed from their lovemaking. She had been giving all she could give to a man, but, in fact, he was not a man. He was a robot. They had invented this different word, "android", but that didn't mean anything more than "robot looking like a man". Maybe he would have used the expression "imcompatibility" to describe what was separating them. She had expected that love would build a bridge between their different natures, but it hadn't worked properly. She wasn't able to read minds or sense feelings, but with the sixth sense of a lover she was aware that he was missing something, that she was not able to fill the hole inside him. She was not enough similar to him. But she also felt that she would not be able to leave him either. And maybe there was a way. * * * "I'm not happy with the results of the last check-up", Dr. Crusher said with a worried expression in her clear face. "I had been hoping that your constitution would strengthten, but this hasn't been the case. At the moment I can't promise you anything. You might have to face the worst. I already have told you." Lavinia had been expecting bad news, but now they came down on her like a dark cloud taking her breath. She hadn't told Data about her disease. It was a strange, little known process that was going to destroy her heart as as well as her lungs and the other inner organs. Its source was unknown, but the doctor assumed that it might have been a virus from one of the colonies they investigated months ago. The doctor also had told her about the possibility to replace the organs through artificial ones. Lavinia had been scared about this idea. It was common medical practice, but she couldn't become familiar with the idea of undergoing it. But the longer she thought about it in these silent, sad minutes in sickbay, there was a slight glimmer of hope appearing at the horizon of her despair. But it was hard to take the chance. "Dr. Crusher?" she asked, trying to stay calm and holding back the tears. "Yes?" Lavinia realised that the doctor also looked desperate. "If you want to give me an artificial heart and other engineering work inside, why don't you make up the whole body? Do you remember Juliana Soong? I know, it's a secret, but Data has told me about her." "I do. But what is the point?" "You know that Dr. Soong had transferred her consciousness from her dying body to the body of an android. She is still Juliana Soong now, but in a different body. It wouldn't be the first time a soul had changed her home." The face of the doctor showed clearly that she had strong doubts in the soundness of mind of her patient. "This has been too much for you. I'll give you a sedative and you'll have some sleep. I don't want you to leave sickbay. I have to monitor you now. We must not lose time." "I want to see Data. We have to talk. He may understand." "Later. Get some sleep first." 'I'm not her good little Wesley', Lavinia thought annoyed. But she could understand the doctor as well. The request was quite strange. * * * "That was some bad news I heard about you. How are you now?" His smooth, tuneful voice slightly lifted her mood. Hearing him talk evoked good memories. Memories, just a few hours ago, but now they were part of a different life. She opened her eyes and thoroughly viewed his shimmering, gentle face, looking at her full of deep worry. "I had time enough to get used to the thought. But now, as time is running out, I'm afraid of dying. I want to stay alive. And I have a plan I would like to share with you." She looked around nervously. "Nobody is here", Data assured her. "Tell me about your plan. Dr. Crusher told me that you were suggesting something, but she thought you were delirious and didn't know what you said. But I am not so certain about that." "You might be the only one to understand. Do you remember our conversation yesterday?" "Shall I reproduce it? I can do that. I have recorded every word, as I record everything I experience." "It's not necessary", Lavinia refused. "I believe in your abilities without demonstration." Without willing she had to smile. She loved his misunderstanding of rhetorical questions. At any other time it would have made her laugh. The concern in his look showed her how much he cared about her condition. "Would you miss me if I died?" she asked. He nodded, unable to say a word. Dozens of consolating expressions were rushing through his head, but he realized that none of them would express how terrible he felt now. If there was anything he could do for her, he surely would. "I wished I could give you some of my strength", he expressed regretfully. "We will find a way to help you." "Sure you will. Your father has found a way. Did you study his records?" With his brilliant brain he realised instantly what she was talking about. "You are thinking of my mother. I have been taking that procedure into consideration, but with severe doubts. I don't have the knowledge my father had. I am only able to reproduce, not to invent." "You have been, but now you have the emotion chip. You are able to create now, not only to reproduce, as you did with Lal. You are the only one that can help me now." He shook his head sadly. "I cannot take the responsibility. It would be an experiment. I cannot guarantee success." "You don't have to. The responsibility is mine. I'm absolutely clear about the risk. But I have nothing to lose. And if they have to replace half of my body, why not give me a completely new one, a body like yours? At last, it would bring me closer to you. And you wouldn't be the only one of your kind any longer." He still did not seem to be convinced. "From a logical point of view I share your thoughts. But I have moral scruples. Actually it would mean ending your life." "Data." She reached out for his hands and was surprised to find them cold. His body was responding to his worry about her. "We have been talking about lifeforms, haven't we? And I told you that we don't know which place a soul prefers for living. We just know that she needs one. And mine wants to have a strong body. A body like yours. The usual procedure would also bear a severe risk. So why not dare the real thing? Why not find the best possible solution? How long would it take you to build an android replica of my body?" He thought for a moment, shrugging his shoulders. "If we can do it in the Daystrom Institute labs and with full assistance, including the transfer of your neural matrix, with all necessary preparations made aboard the Enterprise - about 4 days, depending on the availability of the material." He realised that he had been slipping into his old rational behaviour and started. "I'm sorry. Didn't want to shock you." She did not care. Time was running out. "Do me a favour. We must not lose any more time. Ask the captain if we may follow this project. I will offer my body for science. If this project succeeds, it will be a milestone for cybernetics. And you will make yourself a name in history records, as your father did before." 'And in some strange way you will become my father, too', she added in her thoughts. He nodded in approval. The decision was made. "I will talk to the Captain immediately. Luckily we're on a course to Earth." * * * "Which body would you prefer?" he asked. Data had spread out different sketches and layouts of human bodies on the table of Lavinia's quarters. Dr. Crusher had allowed her to leave sickbay, but under the condition of returning for a daily examination. The doctor had found out in the meantime that the disease was not infectious, so there was no reason for to put her in quarantine. Captain Picard was not fond of their plan, but at last he stated that the patient herself had to make the decision. It was a borderline case. Both choices were equally risky. Lavinia looked at the sketches and took only little a time to weigh the different choices. "As I said: I prefer a replica of my body. I have lived with it for 25 years, and it was okay. I wouldn't like to have to get used to a new image in the mirror." In fact the decision hadn't been that easy. She had been aware already for weeks that this outcome might occur and made plans and deliberations. The temptation of creating the body of her dreams had been strong, but then she decided to pay tribute to fate and stay with the look it had assigned to her. It was a mix of her parents and the generations before. She didn't want to lose her whole heritage with the new body. At last, also Data was created after the image of his father. "Nevertheless, you could improve it slightly, in details", she suggested. "Just remove the less convenient signs of aging. Maybe you could design the shape it had about five years ago." He smiled understandingly. "I wouldn't mind anyway", he said then. "I have nothing to criticize about you." "Don't you strive for perfection?" she asked, astonished. "Not exactly. For me, perfection is a sign of the artificial. But my striving is to become more human. And that means also being less than perfect. Ah, yes, another thing: You will have a natural looking skin, different from mine. So nobody will realise that you have an artificial body, if you don't want to tell them." The whole discussion was so scientific and theoretical that she hardly could believe that she was the subject, that it would have any effects on her life. And maybe this was the only way to be able to tolerate it: to watch from a distance and try not to be concerned. She wouldn't have taken it that easily if she didn't have had that deep desire inside to become more like Data. It wasn't a spontaneous idea. She had been admiring Data long before she joined Starfleet and she had also been eagerly reading everything about androids she could retrieve. She knew that there already had been many more or less successful approaches to create artificial life or to link natural life with artificial bodies. The Borg had been the latest example. But the dream itself was as old as mankind: building the artificial man, creating life beyond the rules of biological reproduction. Lavinia had planned to acquire a degree in cybernetics as soon as her military training was finished. Now life itself had crossed her plans. She often had been angry about the limitations of her body, but now she felt sorry to lose it. It was as if she had to say goodbye to a good old friend. "Data?" She hesitated. He looked up from the paperwork. "Yes?" "You have been telling me about your wide variety of pleasuring programs. As long as I still have this body of mine, I would like to gain new physical experiences. I don't know what the new body will bring, how I will feel in it and with it. I want to keep at least something to remember. Could you push me to the edge?" "I know some techniques that might be deeply exhaustive, certainly. There are also some less appropriate for humans, some of them require a different physiology. What exactly do you want?" "I just want to experience the whole bandwith of sensations. Something that could build a base for my future programming. Maybe I would be also able then to help you in developing your own sensations better. More and more I feel that I have been missing a lot so far." He checked his data and pouted his delicate lips in anticipation. "We'll have a lot of work to do then, though I wouldn't call it work actually." He believed he was sure about the way she wanted him to approach her, therefore he lost no time with hesitating or asking for permission. He just stood up, lifted her before she was prepared and took her to the shower stall, turning on the warm water, with no respect to their clothes or comm badges. Again she was impressed by the ease he could carry her with and wondered if she would have the same strength soon. And she wondered if he would be able to top the Lore-like experience. "I know a place", he whispered into her ear while the water was coming through the woolen material of their uniforms, "where we could stand in the center of a beautiful waterfall. The water has all the colours of the rainbow and is as warm and soothing as summer rain. I would like to visit this place with you one day. Give me some time, and I will design a holodeck module with it. But now, please, close your eyes and imagine we were there. Forget about the ship. Forget about anything but you and me." Her heart announced its presence with a faint approach of pain, but she successfully ignored it. Soon the pain would grow and require strong pain-killers that would also kill her sensations. Therefore she wanted to live every second twice now. CONTINUED NEXT MAIL (c) 1996 lskywa@aol.com *** SkY iS tHE LiMIt ***