Title: His Silicon Soul

Author: M

Rating: 12+

Spoilers: Star Trek: Nemesis

Disclaimer: Own none of the characters or the universe. Though I'd treat it better than B&B ever would.

Author's Note: for clannadlvr: A response to the ficlet challenge: Give me a fandom to work in, and exactly two of the following:

a pairing
a character
a setting
an object
and I will write you a ficlet.

clannadlvr gave me

Star Trek TNG
Riker/Troi or Data/Tasha (whichever you prefer, because the second probably lends itself to teh angst.)
Object: The wet ring a glass makes on a table top when you take away the glass.

I went with both pairings. :-p

Mucho thanks to angelsgracie for the impromptu beta

"His Silicon Soul"
by M.

How it was that Will Riker came to be the one to pack Data's personal belongings was a bit of a mystery among the Enterprise's crew. Even to some of the senior staff. By rights, all believed it should have been Geordi. Of all the crew he had been the one closest to their friend. It was no understatement to say the duo had been closer than brothers and, some believed, that was why. That was why, they believed, Geordi wasn't doing it. The pain of the loss was yet too fresh for him to even consider attempting such a macabre duty and Captain Riker had volunteered to do it for him. To spare him the pain.

In one respect they weren't entirely wrong but in another, they weren't entirely right. That was why Geordi couldn't perform the duty himself but it was not why Will had volunteered. They didn't realize that even if Geordi had been willing, the outgoing First Officer would have pulled rank and insisted. No matter who volunteered, he would have insisted. He was going to do this himself. It was the very least he could have done for his friend and if there was ever a duty which Will would have insisted upon as his last official act on the Enterprise...

This was it.

"You don't have to do this." Deanna reminded quietly, her words voiced out of formality and the rituals of social conduct her mother had been so fond of during her childhood. "I can --"

"No, Imzadi," her husband interrupted in equally quiet tones, "I need to do this."

For him.

And he did. She could sense that need radiating off of him in waves. "I know." Advancing into the room, she made no further attempt at stopping him. Instead, she joined him at Data's desk.

He was holding the round base of a personal holoprojector in his palm - the kind used for personal images - while, at the same time, staring down at the gleaming surface of the desk. The look on his face was a peculiar mix of confusion and consternation. Emotions which were seeping up through the mask of grief which muted and muddied her sense of him.

Deanna followed his gaze downward and watched his other hand trace a perfectly circular watermark. "It's still wet." She commented, confused. "How?"

"How indeed." Her husband wondered, looking now at the projector. "I picked this up and found the water. It's as if someone left a glass behind but..."

"But it was beneath a holoprojector and that technology has no water in it," she finished, nodding. The water was indeed a curious anomaly. It shouldn't have been there under any circumstance. Not after so much time had passed. Even a holographic projection of water wouldn't have left anything behind after being shut off. "So where exactly did it come from?" Deanna asked, following her train of thought to it's natural question.

"No idea." He said simply, touching the activation pad.

"Tasha."

The name sprang easily to their lips in a kind of benediction as they stared at a tiny, holographic Natasha Yar smiling up at them.

"He's had this all this time." Deanna marveled, unconsciously reaching toward the minuscule representation of her friend. "Ever since..."

"He loved her." Will said by way of explanation, a faint smile on his lips as he looked down at her. "Granted, it took him a decade to experience the actual emotion but that's irrelevant."

"It is."

A smile blossomed to her lips and what passed between their minds then were things which no language, no words, could ever hope to express. Not even the word by which they defined themselves. It was an understanding of sorts. A comprehension of what had occurred in the mind of their friend. They knew only too well that time was immaterial to emotion. It was not a flight of fancy when it came to Data. Though to them it was almost a spiritual sense...to Data it had been far more literal and Deanna finally said as much.

"When he first put the chip in he went through so many emotions." Deanna recalled fondly, still looking at the hologram of Tasha. "He laughed at jokes he'd heard a decade before...I don't recall him ever saying anything about feelings for Tasha but..." He hadn't needed to. She'd understood. She'd known what had happened between her old friends. A confession Data had offered one night. Matter of fact and to the point. A confidence.

"Me either." Looking down at the water, Will touched it again. "Have you ever wondered?" He asked abruptly.

"Wondered what?"

"If Data had a soul."

She caught a whisper of the thought in his mind and smiled, reaching out to take the projector. "Not anymore." She murmured, putting voice to the thought they'd both had.

"No." Will agreed with a nod and a smile. "Not anymore."

Finis