Chapter 21

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September 9, 2337

On that morning, Lore woke early just as the sun was rising above the trees. He replicated a cup of coffee, twelve fountain ink pens, twelve strips of black ribbon, and a large sheet of drawing paper which he rolled up and stowed in his personal pack. Today marked his second birthday.

The years on Omicron Theta were about the same length as Terran years, give or take a week. The year was point 79 weeks longer, to be exact. He remarked to himself. This meant that every year his birthday fell just a little bit earlier on the local year.

He took a long sip from his coffee, savoring the bitter flavor of the drink. He could not explain why he was partial to a beverage which would usually have a harsh taste on the human tongue. He loved it, regardless, though he seldom indulged in eating or drinking. Shame and embarrassment gripped him whenever he recalled the first times he had tried to participate in a meal with his parents. His parent's friend, an old physicist, Tom Handy had also been present and – much to Lore's chagrin – had been delighted with his difficulties. His mother, though she had tried to disguise it, had also found his blundering amusing. His father had ignored them both and meeting Lore's eye with a steady gaze had said, "That's OK. Try it again, you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

But Lore was not thinking of that experience today. He was aware of how humans usually celebrated their birthdays – with parties and cake – but today he would be celebrating in his own way. He put the drawing supplies into his pack with the paper and took another sip from his mug. He then left a short note letting his parents know where he would be going for the morning.

There was a creek that ran through a small glen, five kilometers from his home in the compound. The walk to the glen ran alongside a massive corn field and in between tall grasses which, during his first year, he had discovered bloomed with lacy white flowers in the early summer time. In September, however, the grasses blushed an amber color and were dry and brittle to the touch. With his free hand, he ran his fingers along their rough texture as he trudged through them.

A gentle warm wind snaked between the branches of the trees native to the colony. The colonists had brought with them a few non-invasive specimens from Earth but they were small, unique flowering plants, and most of them were planted near the compound and town center, or were kept inside climate controlled biodomes. But out here was only native flora. These trees, these colors, this landscape felt more like home to him than Earth ever would.

An hour or so later, he approached the small glen and beyond he could spot the creek winding through the taller, typha-like grasses bordering the water's edge. His usual resting spot was under a tree at the center of the glen, growing alongside the creek so that its gnarled roots formed a small, natural dam. Its branches were extremely flexible and they drooped, brushing the ground. When the creek rose high enough after a heavy rain, the branches would trail in the waters. His customary spot was a patch of soft grass, nestled between two roots on the opposite side of the tree, facing away from the creek. From there, he could hear the water but look out between the veil of branches across the golden field.

On his toes, he leapt from one rock to another, his advanced strength and balance allowing him to make great strides without falling in the tumbling creek. From here, he climbed the bank and set his pack down, pulling out the drawing paper and unrolling it on the ground beneath a cluster of low-hanging branches. He fished out the pens and ribbons. One by one, he tied each pen to the end of one of the branches, so that its tip danced across the surface of the paper. He then returned to his spot and relaxed. He wanted a piece of work that was organic, created without his hands, that was still a product of his own creation.

His synthetic muscles relaxed and his mind quieted to a much slower pace. He closed his eyes. When he entered a meditative state, he could forget all of his worries, and perhaps a small portion of him could believe that he was truly alive.

A bird warbled from a branch somewhere above his head and his eyes snapped open. He had unknowingly drifted off to sleep as his programming would occasionally do if he was deeply relaxed. He checked his internal chronometer; nearly an hour had elapsed. He then stood and observed the paper. The center had a number of marks, but much of the white space surrounding the center remained untouched. He would have liked to remain a while longer to allow the branches to make a deeper pattern, but his father would be awake by now and he wanted to help him in his lab with the beginnings of a new project. Gently, he untied each of the pens from their branches, so that he would not make additional marks on the page or damage any of the delicate, slender leaves.

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By the time Lore had returned home, the crisp morning breeze had carried with it a looming gray storm front. He could sense the drop in pressure and the wind was warm. He did not entirely understand why, but he could also sense the change in the season, the slight tilt of the planet's axis as they were hurled through space in revolution around their sun.

He took the steps two at a time, being careful to stay as quiet as possible. The front door opened as he stretched out his fingers for the handle. Julianna stood in the doorframe, lips pressed together in mild irritation though Lore liked to think he could see a twinge of amusement in her expression as well.

"Good morning. Storm's coming, would you like me to help you bring in your plants?" He nodded at the various annuals – whose flowers had since wilted away – and the single aloe plant.

"Where've you been?" she asked coolly, placing a hand on her hip.

"I went out for a walk this morning," he said, pulling his pack higher up on his shoulder and trying to slip around her.

"Your father wants to speak with you and," she placed her hand on his chest, barring his entry, "yes, thank you, I would appreciate a hand with the plants. Oh, and happy birthday." Her pursed lips melted into a smile and she gestured to the pots.

Taking the aloe plant in one hand and a browning marigold in the other, Lore asked, "what does he want to speak with me about?"

"You'll see. He's in the lab."

Their home, like many of the other homes in the colony, was connected to the research facility by a network of individual laboratories and corridors, a majority of which were underground. Lore placed the plants on the first few steps of the staircase along with his pack. He stopped in the kitchen to recycle his coffee mug before proceeding down the narrow stairwell into the complex.

He found his father not in front of a screen, designing some new AI programming, but rather sitting near several large containers in the lab, reading from an ancient paper book.

"Catching up on the latest teen fiction?" he asked, scarcely concealing a smirk, though he could see the lettering at the top of the page reading Nicomachean Ethics.

"No." Soong glanced up and grinned, setting the book aside. "Happy birthday, my son."

"Thanks. You didn't call me down here because I'm in trouble, did you?"

"You're always in trouble, according to Jules. Nah, come on," he rose, precisely the same height as Lore, and beckoned with his index finger. "Got something I want to show you."

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Lore stared at the data pad's display screen, his face bathed in blue. "This programming... it's very similar to my own but..." his eyebrows furrowed. "I don't understand."

"I thought you might like to meet your younger brother."

"Or sister." Juliana had crept up behind him while they were going over the schematics. Lore turned and found her smiling.

"A sibling?" he asked, somewhat awed. She nodded, still smiling.

"I don't know what to say."

"We thought that it might be easier for you if you had someone who shared in your unique experiences." Noonian stepped toward him, placing his hand on his son's shoulder, as he had done many times before. "This is uncharted territory in parenting, and we knew there would be challenges. And we began to realize that there's only so much we can do to help you adapt, so... we decided to create Data."

"Data," Lore echoed. "That's a good name."

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"How do you plead?"

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September 9, 2335

There was nothing.

And then, as if rising from a deep, dreamless sleep, he simply was. His existence was a confusing network of packages of information with no experiential context to give them meaning. The first thought that occurred to him was a question.

Who am I?

Not what am I, or where, but a strong sense of being and an even stronger desire to know that being.

He opened his eyes and used his arm to push himself up into a sitting position from the angled work table. The motion was reflexive and he turned, surprised at his own movement, glancing down at his hand where his pale fingers splayed across a polished metal he had unconsciously registered as cold. In his initial bewilderment, he failed to notice two people standing in his peripheral. A woman, and a man with a face that was familiar in a way he could not identify.

Soong stepped forward, cautiously placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hello, Lore."

"'Lore'... that is my name." Somewhere between a question and a statement.

Soong nodded, a small smile pulling at his lips. "It is."

"And... what are your names?"

Soong turned, reaching for his wife. She took his hand. "This is Juliana."

"I'm your mother," she added with a smile that sparkled with a secret humor.

"And I'm-"

"You're my father." Lore interjected. Juliana and Soong glanced at each other.

"That's right."

"I don't know how I knew that." he added, somewhat apologetic.

"That's alright. You'll come to understand soon enough that there are a lot of things neither you nor I will be able to explain satisfactorily."

Lore nodded, eyebrows knitting, not entirely understanding what his father was trying to explain. "Why is that?" Juliana gave Soong another look, her smile broadening.

"I don't know," Soong chuckled. "I suppose that's why they're called mysteries."

"Where are we?" Lore asked. He had a general concept of the Milky Way, Earth, and all the major Federation civilizations, but no clues as to his place in it.

"We live with an Earth colony, on a planet lovingly designated Omicron Theta." Lore did not pick up the sarcasm.

"Why are we here?"

"We're a science colony. We're here to develop our technological capabilities and to try to unravel some of those mysteries I told you about. That is, in part, why we created you."

There was a pause as Lore considered this.

"Noonian, let's take him outside." Juliana cut into the silence, clearly excited.

Soong was silent for a moment. "Alright, why not? Wait'll Tom catches a glimpse of him."

Juliana brushed the sentiment aside like an irksome fly. "I don't give a damn about Tom Handy."

Soong addressed his son. "Do you think you can handle it? There will be other people outside."

Lore rose from the table and stood, the prospect exciting him as well. "Will you introduce me to them?"

Soong indicated to the door as Juliana exited, following his son. "Well I may not introduce you to everyone today, but you'll know them all soon enough. It's a small colony."

They climbed a spiral staircase into a eccentric, brightly-colored kitchen, decorated with an assortment of items that clashed in design. Juliana caught Lore taking in the scene out of the corner of her eye.

"This is your home, Lore." she called over her shoulder from the hall.

"Home." He decided that he liked the way the word sounded.

Outside, the afternoon rays set the autumn leaves aflame. He noticed the color was very similar to that of his mother's hair, on which the sun had a similar effect. She pulled an apple from a tree at the edge of the porch, its branch hanging just low enough for her reach. She took a bite, savoring the taste before informing him, "It's autumn. September 9th. Most people celebrate their birthdays."

Lore glanced at the apple, curiously. He leaned over the porch rails and twisted the nearest apple off the same branch. It was red with splashes of yellow on one side. He smelled it before taking a bite. He analyzed the grainy texture and the 'taste' of the acids and sugar compounds. Though he did not know it, the apple was not yet ripe.

"The colony also does a lot of farming." Soong nodded toward the field, across the lane that led to their house. From the porch, they had an excellent view of a massive corn field, now dark with tilled dirt from the recent harvest. "Come on, let's walk."

"How many people live in the colony?"

"About four hundred."

They walked in silence for sometime, Juliana occasionally pointing out some of the houses and naming the inhabitants or answering one of Lore's questions.

After some time, the sun finally slipped below the tree line bordering the crop fields beyond the houses, and a blue twilight fell over the little town. As they were making their way toward one of the community gardens, they spotted a woman chatting with a man over the gated entrance to her lawn, which was slightly more manicured than the surrounding homes. She sipped a glass of red wine as she talked, and had not yet noticed the approaching trio.

Juliana slowed as she recognized the woman. "Perhaps we should show him the gardens tomorrow, when it's light out?" she said in a low voice to her husband. But it was too late; the man had spotted them.

"Noonian! Good to see you this evening. Juliana and..." he could just barely make out the face in the growing darkness, but the color of Lore's face was decidedly other. "Lore, I presume." his tone had changed but his words remained cordial as he stretched out a hand. Lore glanced sideways at his father, who nodded discretely, and he briefly grasped the man's hand. "I'm Daniel, and this is Dr. Kyla Marr."

The woman had only glanced cursorily at Lore and turned stiffly from him, without addressing him and chose instead to ask Soong, "I thought we had agreed that we would take certain precautions before allowing... Lore... to walk about the colony."

Lore was taken aback. He sifted through countless references of human social interaction in his data banks, trying to explain her behavior.

"I remember you briefly mentioned it, though I never agreed to anything of the sort. He's my son, he may walk around the colony as he pleases, so long as he can stay out of any trouble, which I trust he can manage." Soong glanced at Lore again, and gave him a small lopsided smile, which Lore felt unable to return.

Dr. Marr narrowed her eyes at him very slightly, before turning to Daniel and bidding him goodnight. She gave Soong and Juliana another icy glance before retreating into her home. Daniel also dismissed himself, with more social grace, addressing Lore again somewhat awkwardly, before ambling off into the night.

Once he had disappeared into the dark, Juliana let out a somewhat exasperated sigh.

As they turned and began making their walk back to their own home, she said, "I'm sorry, Lore. Kyla Marr isn't exactly the first person I would have chosen for you to meet here."

He said nothing in response as his father eyed him with some concern, mulling in silence as they walked, before finally asking, "Why did she treat me with so much contempt? I have done nothing to her. She couldn't possibly have any misgivings about me... could she?" he added, almost to himself.

"It's nothing you did, Lore. It's just that... not everyone sees you through the same lens as us. To us, you're our child, our only child. We helped create you and shaped many aspects of who you are and I hope we can continue to do so. But..." Soong seemed to have difficulty choosing his words. "Many have a hard time understanding a life as unique as yours, one that is so different from their own. Humans can be very prejudiced."

"Be patient with her, Lore. I'm sure with kindness, she'll come around to you. So far, you've been very socially oriented and that's a good sign, I think."

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Lore lay on top of the blankets of the bed that had apparently been made for him. Though the walls to his new home were well insulated for temperature and sound, he could hear his parents murmuring. He could only make out a few of his mother's words at a time, "He's... time to... be fine."

Eventually their chat died down and he turned his thoughts inward, staring unseeing at the ceiling. The introduction he had received from the colonists had been extremely unpleasant for him, especially once he began to understand the source of contempt he had received from Dr. Marr, but she had been unable to tarnish his anticipation to learn more about this place, the other colonists, and himself.

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"How do you plead?"

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January 11, 2338

Freshly hardened snow crunched under Lore's boots as he made the five-kilometer trek to his favorite spot by the creek. The demands of assisting with Data's development had kept him busy over the past few months and he had not been hiking very far since the beginning of winter. He imagined it now, the field blanketed in snow, the tree-line stark and gray, the long willowy tree backed up to the bend in the frozen creek, naked of its slender leaves.

He relished the morning air and the winds were fierce enough to carve bone. He paused. Kneeling down and scooping a fistful of snow from the ground, he ignored the cold as he crushed the snow into a ball of packed ice. The crunching sensation was strangely satisfying. He rose, shielded from the biting winds under a number of insulating layers, and continued.

As he walked, he kept his gaze forward, occasionally turning his face upward towards a pristine blue sky, or downward to step over muddy roots as he entered the more treacherous footpath of the thicket. He rounded one ancient, oak-like tree and froze.

Light poured into what should have been the darkest patch of the woods. Lore pulled his borrowed tricorder from his pocket and hesitantly stepped over a sizable, lichen-covered log that appeared to have been sliced in half, with the other half hauled away.

He could see the opposite side of the clearing; it was only ten meters across. But it stretched on for kilometers in either direction towards the horizon.

His first thought was that perhaps the colonists had decided to begin developing the area, but the pattern of clearing and distance from the town's center did not support this theory. Upon scanning the clearing, he found odd harmonic signatures which he could not, to his knowledge, attribute to any known phenomena. Additionally, he found that the soil in the clearing was somewhat homogeneous in composition and devoid of all organic material.

He pocketed the tricorder and scooped up a handful of the muddy gray soil from the clearing before immediately turning back toward the colony at a far more brisk pace than when he first began his walk.

He took the steps to the front porch two at a time, nearly slipping on the icy wet boards in his haste to reach the house. He wrenched open the front door and Juliana looked up at him from her tool-cluttered work desk in the windowed corner of their wide living area.

"You're back early, I wasn't expecting you until much later this afternoon."

"I've found something rather alarming." He said mutedly, as though he was afraid someone might overhear. She looked up at him skeptically as he opened his fingers to reveal a handful of the grey mud. "Could you have a quick look at it?"

She held out a glass slide onto which he carefully tipped a clump of the mud, and she then placed it under a diagnostic tool. Lore waited patiently as she looked it over and the computer finished its analysis. "It's a silicate composition… with a resonance frequency I've never seen before. I might expect to see something like this on a very geologically active planet, Lore, where did you find this?"

He showed her the tricorder images of the clearing. "This was running through the patch of woods about three kilometers from here. It's on the path I usually take to the creek." Her eyebrows came together for several moments as she examined the readings, and then smoothed as she slipped on a calm, mask-like persona.

"Let's take these to Daniel," she picked up the sample off the desk and swiftly moved around Lore towards the spiral staircase that descended into the colony's network of labs.

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"I see you've discovered our planet's newest guest. It set down sometime this morning before dawn and began pulling bio electric energy from the planet in long gashes like these," Daniel indicated to the display screen which showed a sensor reading of the planet's biosphere. Stripes of white in long, curving paths varying in width, like a child's scribbles, were etched into the surface.

The door to the lab hissed open and Dr. Kyla Marr entered with three of the other scientists. Her eyes flicked to Juliana and then paused momentarily on Lore, but Daniel spoke up before she had the chance to voice any discontentment.

"Juliana has just brought us a soil sample. It's from one of the paths created by the entity."

Dr. Marr turned back to Juliana. "Where did you find it?" she asked flatly.

"Actually, Lore found it. About three kilometers west from our home."

She narrowed her eyes. "Indeed?"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Daniel gave Lore and his mother a reassuring smile. He had warmed up to Lore shortly after they had first been introduced. He was in the minority on the colony. "It's moving at a very slow rate, and with the exception of the clearing outside the town, it seems to be moving in a lateral pattern exclusively above the southern continent, so we're not particularly concerned about it. We'll keep you and Noonian updated if anything changes."

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"How do you plead?"

Lore was ripped from his reverie. He looked up from between his pale hands resting on a cherry oak table, into the dark, soulful eyes of the sector's chief justice. He could feel his brother's gaze on the back of his head as he paused.

"To the charges of abetting in the destruction of the colony on Omicron Theta and the loss of lives residing in that colony, I plead not guilty."

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January 18, 2338

Lore knocked gently at his parent's bedroom door. He had been instructed to wake his father at nine, and Juliana was already downstairs going over some additional soil readings for her work. Noonian Soong had a habit staying up for days, so whenever he had the chance he would sleep for unnaturally long stretches of time. There was no answer.

He knocked again and added "As per your request, I'm getting you up. This is your last opportunity to activate Data before he becomes a tree-hugging Aquarian." He heard a soft chuckle from inside, and then the rustling of bedcovers. Several moments later Soong emerged, dressed somewhat haphazardly and running a hand through longer, unkempt hair that was graying at the temples. He was grinning, and Lore could scarcely contain his own excitement.

"You know, I've wondered if it's going to be too much to handle with two of you boys around."

"Twice the mischief?"

"I certainly hope not. Jules might not be able to manage."

"You know I've been wondering… why did you decide to make him identical to you? And to me?" Soong paused, his foot on the first descending step of the wooden staircase inside their home, giving the illusion that he was several inches shorter than his son.

"You know, that's a good question. When you were first activated, you immediately recognized me as your father, I loved the way that felt. Especially considering how strongly I felt that you were my son."

"But I didn't know that I resembled you at the time… I had no idea what I looked like."

"Still, I just can't shake this feeling that it will come handy for him in the future. I- I can't explain it." He grinned up at Lore again, and then descended the stairs. Lore trailed behind, still confused and not entirely convinced that it was not simple vanity.

When they rounded the staircase and entered the hall, Juliana stood in the kitchen's entryway, leaning against the frame as she spoke quietly into her communicator. "Alright. Thanks, Dan…"

She looked up at the pair, her face grim. "The entity has migrated again. It's stripping the southern region of our continent. In one week it's managed to deplete over seventy percent of the southern continent's biosphere. They're holding an emergency council meeting."

Juliana went to grab a sweater, and Soong leaned in close to Lore saying, "leave your communicator on mute, and I'll let you listen in."

Lore nodded.

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Sprawled out across the bed that he made earlier that morning, Lore's communicator lay open on top of the pillow to his right. He heard the somewhat crunched voice of Dr. Ariel Gibbons, the colony's leading exobiologist and behaviorist, rise from the comm, "The entity seems to act instinctively, moving in on the richest areas of biologic matter first. That would make the mountains and outer lying regions likely to be its first focus. I would estimate that we have only a few days to act."

Daniel spoke after her. "I have completed a spectral analysis of the entity. During the analysis, the computer recorded numerous bursts of graviton pulses from the entity in complex frequencies. It's entirely possible that it's attempting to communicate." Lore's eyebrows knitted together.

"I don't think so. Everything I have observed from the creature would seem to indicate that it is not sentient."

"It may not be sentient but if it is still possible to communicate with it on some level… create some camouflage to discourage it from destroying the colony, then I think we should try. I could begin running those frequencies through the universal translator."

Dr. Marr spoke at this point. "We don't have the time to fool around with these random frequencies of graviton pulses to see if it responds. We've taken immense risk by not destroying it when it first arrived on the colony."

There was a murmur of agreement before the deep, burly voice of Council Leader Strickland spoke. "We will move to an immediate vote on the matter of defense. All in favor…? All opposed?" There was a long stretch of silence while the votes were counted.

"The council votes in favor of using defensive measures preemptively with a majority vote of forty-four, to six. Dr. Marr will dispatch to the nearest starbase with a message to inform the Colonization Security Committee of the council's decision. This emergency session is adjourned." There was a rustling of movement, and the comm went silent. Lore sat upright, somewhat disturbed by the events that had unfolded in the session. The majority of them were frightened, he knew, but he did not believe that fear warranted the entity's execution.

Lore was awake for the remainder of the evening and well into the night, wrestling with his tangled ethical programming. Just as the sun was beginning to peak above the treeline just visible from his window, he decided he could not remain content to do nothing. He rose quietly from his bed that was still made, and descended into the labyrinth beneath his home.

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"At this point, I accessed the colony's universal translator and patched it through the communications relay in my father's lab."

"And this is how you were able to establish communication with the entity?"

"That is correct."

"Very well. Will you give us your account of the events that unfolded that morning?"

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Lore spoke directly into the comm unit, which fed the information through the modified universal translator. "Crystalline Entity. Can you understand me?"

There was a pause, during which several minutes passed. He repeated the message. A short series of frequencies were relayed through the comm unit. A few moments elapsed as the universal translator worked. The comm unit was programmed to relay the response in text across the display monitor as the frequencies provided no voice from which the computer could extrapolate an audio-lingual response.

Yes.

What is 'me'?

Lore was taken aback. He had not entirely believed any of his attempts at communication would work.

"My name is Lore. That is what the others here call me." He responded, presuming the entity was asking about his identity.

Others?

"Yes. There is a whole colony of living beings here. Your presence here threatens us."

Why?

"You consume biological matter. The beings here are organic, biological in nature."

You are organic?

Lore paused for a moment, and to simplify matters responded, "yes."

Why have you been silent until now?

"We were unable to communicate with you before now. You are... very unique. Why are you here? What is your purpose?"

I am preparing.

Intrigued, Lore continued. "Preparing for what?"

There was only an error chirrup. He tried repeating the message. The comm was dead. He removed the data recorder, changed the scrambler frequency, and fled the lab before the colonists could trace the signal.

He dashed down the hall until he reached the stairwell which ascended into his own home. He took the steps two at a time and could hear his parents laughing over breakfast as he did. They both stopped, glancing at him in surprise as he rushed into the kitchen.

"Lore, what's the matter?" Juliana asked, concerned.

"There's something I need to tell you." Lore paused, taking a moment to collect himself before continuing. "This morning, I established communication with the crystalline entity."

There was a long pause as Soong surveyed his son with a frown.

"How?" he asked flatly.

"I rerouted part of the colony's communications array through your laboratory and I modified some of the coding used in the universal translator to adjust to the entity's unique use of graviton pulses."

"You used my laboratory?" Lore could hear a hint of anger suppressed in his voice.

"Yes."

Juliana spoke up at this point. "That was very foolish, Lore. Once the council finishes its analysis of the entity's structure, they intend to destroy it."

For the first time in his life, Lore felt anger towards his own parents bubbling up from his throat. "They cannot do that. Not only is it capable of communication, but it is self-aware. It would be unethical to destroy it without at least attempting to dissuade it first."

"Do you have a record of these communications?" Soong asked, quickly matching Lore's pace of urgency.

"Yes I do." He held out the data recorded with his left hand. "I believe the colonists were aware that I sent the communications-" Soong's communicator chirruped. He raised his eyebrows, still frowning at Lore as he spoke into the device.

"Yes... Yes, I am aware. No, Lore did as a matter of fact. Yes, he did and I was speaking with him about it just now before you called. Alright. We'll be down shortly." he calmly set the communicator on the table, took the last mouthful of replicated bacon off of his plate and said to Lore, "Well, I'm going to come with you and you're going to present this new evidence before the council leader, and explain how you managed it."

"Thank you." Lore said, relieved. Soong snorted.

"I wouldn't thank me yet."

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Soong led him to the same lab where Daniel had first displayed the migrations of the entity. The display screen showed the southern continent deeply gouged and a new criss-cross pattern rapidly forming in the northern continent. At a glance, Lore estimated that the entity had consumed nearly twenty percent of the continent's biosphere in the last 24 hours alone. He then met Daniel's eyes as he surveyed him grimly. There was life at stake, and a very unique one at that. Council Leader Strickland addressed him.

"Lore, you were welcomed into this colony with the agreement that you would not interfere with its operations. Can you explain the coded transmissions which were sent from Dr. Soong's laboratory?"

"Yes, I can." Lore tilted his chin up a fraction of a centimeter as he spoke. "I've been studying the entity. I was able to analyze the graviton pulses being emitted by the entity and I quickly discovered some patterns. I was able to modify the code used in our universal translators to analyze these pulses further and to discern a lingual pattern." Lore held out the data drive.

"What is this?"

"It contains a record of the brief exchange I had with the entity. It also contains the code I used to modify the translator... The being used the term 'I' which would seem to indicate some level of self-awareness. Sir, in light of this discovery I seriously think the council should reconsider its decision to destroy the entity."

Strickland considered for several long moments before taking the drive. "Thank you, Lore. I will present this new information before the council, and we will reconsider."

"Thank you-"

"I will warn you. Our decision in the matter is final. Any further intervention on your part will be considered obstruction of the defensive measures of this colony and will be punishable as a criminal offense."

Lore nodded and said nothing.

"Dr. Soong," both Juliana and Noonian turned simultaneously as they were leaving. Despite the atmosphere, Lore cracked a small grin. "Please stay a moment."

"Lore, please go straight home." Soong's voice was perfectly even and warm, but his piercing blue eyes met Lore's with sternness.

The door to the lab hissed closed and the smile slid from Lore's face. He returned to their home to await his parents. The door to the bedroom across from his parent's was still wide open, the morning sunlight pouring in from the window that overlooked the small, grassy lawn of their backyard. In November, they had converted Juliana's office into a bedroom in anticipation of bringing a new member into their family. They had moved in a bed and a large bookshelf, and the door had remained open since.

Lore sat down on the bed. His comm chirruped and he glanced down at it. A short message from his mother. They're reconvening in a half an hour. Do not leave the house.

Lore sat on his brother's bed for nearly an hour and a half, staring at the same patch of quilt as the sun crept across the room.

"-I absolutely refuse, Juliana, that's a non-option for me." He could hear his parents metallic footsteps up the staircase below their home.

"I think it would be in his best interest until this is over-"

"My answer is no. That's enough." They went silent as they entered the house. He could then hear his father's footsteps slowly ascending the wooden staircase. Lore did not look up as the bed shifted under the change of weight.

"They haven't changed their decision have they?" His father was silent. "I knew they wouldn't."

"I know you may not understand why they're doing what they are, but the system we have in place for decision-making is for our protection... Lore, I need to know that you aren't going to cause any more problems the colonists... for us. "

Lore finally looked up at his father, before standing and retiring to his own bedroom.

.

.

Hours later, Noonian was in his lab, reading over the final schematics and coding for Data's trickier subprograms, though he had already done so hundreds of times and was certain there were no bugs. A short alert chirruped from his PADD, and he picked the device, unable to believe what he was seeing. He quickly composed himself, snatching up the device he had fashioned to immobilize his son. After Lore had first awoken on that work table nearly two years prior, he had never thought he would need to use rounded the corner, nearing closer to the labyrinth's center. He comm went off but he silenced it. Another corner and he stopped cold. His son looked up and met his eyes. Soong barely recognized him. Lore's golden eyes, usually filled with warmth, were cold and calculating.

"I'm disappointed in you, Lore." There was a long pause as he stopped working on the console.

"You're disappointed?" Lore hissed almost disbelieving, hands shaking, inches above the controls. "Well then you should also be disappointed in yourself as well. You created me after all. Coded me with whatever ethical subprogram is failing me now."

"I did create you, but I also gave you free will and self-determination. There isn't anything in you that is written in stone, that cannot be changed. I made you that way so that you could adapt... so you could learn and grow."

"I have no intention of rewriting my programming when my ethical code becomes inconvenient for the colonists." Lore turned back to the console and continued attempting to gain access to the central command unit.

"I've already explained to you, what the colonists are doing-"

"Right, for their protection," he spat, still working. "I understand well enough. They'll destroy anything they don't understand out fear, they'd destroy me too, if you weren't standing in the way."

"That's right." Soong took a step forward, keeping his tone calm. "I'm on your side, Lore."

"Which explains why you've defended them."

"I don't know what's going on with you, I only want to bring you back home, safely. Please," he pleaded.

Lore ignored him, his fingers a blur over the control panel.

There was an audible click and Lore found himself paralyzed. He leaned, falling towards the station. Soong quickly stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Lore's chest and easing him onto the ground, his hand poised under the small of his back.

"I'm sorry. This is for the best."

Another click.

His eyes were closed.

"-notice the microcircuitry here, and here..."

running self diagnostic...
accessing chronology...

"and another fibroid-like connection here-"

26 years...

"Let's close up," a different voice.

Location, accessing...

Lore heard a click to his right, and the sounds of movement.

"Is he conscious, Doctor?"

His heart wrenched at the sound of his brother's voice. Immediately following, intense anger, betrayal, hurt... but he did not move.

.

.

"I believe this is where your story weaves into your other charges?"

"That's correct. One moment, I was on the colony, trying to follow my ethical programming to the best of my ability while it caused emotional turmoil and conflict with my parents. The next moment, I was aboard a Federation starship, my parents and my home were gone, and Data whom had yet to be activated was now my senior by almost 24 years. My life had been upended, and I stopped trusting anyone." Lore noted that when he remembered events from his past, he could recall them with perfect clarity, as if he was living them all over again. Taking a breath, he distanced himself from the emotions of what happened on the colony.

The Justice nodded again before continuing. "Lore, you stated that you directly disobeyed Council Leader Strickland, and attempted to gain access to the colony's defensive weapons system. For what purpose?"

"I attempted to access the weapons array in order to disable it."

"In your attempt to preserve the entity?"

"That is correct."

"Were you successful in disabling the weapon's array?"

"No." Lore responded curtly. The justice made a number of notes on his padd, his face unreadable.

"Alright we'll take a recess while I consider your account and weight it against the remaining evidence. We will reconvene in two hours and a verdict will be given." The Justice tapped his gavel on the wooden podium.

Lore stood, and the transporter beam wrapped around him again. He found himself back inside his solitary cell aboard the starbase, his hands free of the magnetic restraints. He straightened, and climbed onto the cot, standing so that he could see out of the narrow window that overlooked the bustling center of the starbase. The base was so large that the view of space looked blue through the contained atmosphere, growing darker as the view of space approached to his vantage.

A few minutes later, B-4 entered the brig, and took a seat on the bench in front of the cell's force field. Lore did not move or pull his eyes from the view, still standing on the cot and leaning against the padded wall.

"I never told you about what our father said to me, did I?" B-4 started, trying to break Lore from his turbulent thoughts.

"What's that?" Lore's curiosity piqued, he turned to B-4, eyebrows knitted.

"Just before I was deactivated. You know I was created as predecessor to you, we all inferred that much at least. But later on I... rediscovered a few clipped memories that hadn't decayed over the years. After our father tested my functions, we had a short conversation. He told me that I was going offline for a while. I was afraid." B-4 relived his memories flatly, not meeting Lore's eyes. "He promised me that when I woke again I would have a much better understanding of the world. He was right, in a way I suppose. But I'm not sure if he had ever intended to reactive me or if he just never found the time before he..." he finally met his brother's eyes again. Lore's face was was still, but swimming with conflicted emotion.

"But that's all in the past. Maybe I wasn't meant to be reactivated until now. Perhaps everything happened exactly as it should have."

Lore was not sure he agreed, but he had to respect the sentiment.

.

.

"Considering all available evidence, including the account given by the defendant, by Dr. Kyla Marr, and the collective records of the investigation conducted by the USS Enterprise followed by the USS Aries, it is the opinion of the Justice that Lore Soong is not guilty. You are acquitted of the charges committed between stardates 15048 and 15053. You will continue to be detained until you can be transported to Starbase 1 where you will stand trial for your remaining charges."

The justice cracked the gavel on the podium once more, and Lore let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding for nearly twenty years. He had been carrying the weight four hundred lives since he had awoken aboard the Enterprise. It affected his actions, his judgment, and how he perceived himself. The dark mirror that he was accustomed to gazing into, that had grown steadily dirtier over the years, had been cleaned just enough to let in a small ray of light.

Author's note:

I'm sorry this is such a long chapter, but this was a bit of a long story to tell here with no real natural pauses. Additionally, Typha are cattails and the idea for the art piece Lore was working on comes from Tim Knowles' tree drawing concept. In regard to the science about how Lore was able to communicate with the entity: that's not science at all! Unfortunately with topics like these, we just have to lean more heavily on fiction instead. Thanks for reading, and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.